Taming the Lion
by JasperIsAManlyMan
Summary: Bella's pride has always shunned her for her parentage. The man she loved was killed for a hatred of his kind. And her sister has just been murdered. Alone and seeking revenge, Bella's sure she'll never be happy again - until she meets the Cullens.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

I was in the East Texas piny woods. The sun was shining brightly above the trees – their branches made the light dappled on my skin. It was warm. It was a beautiful day.

But I was beyond noticing the beauty around me. I was shaking with fury, my hands clenched tightly into fists. My body _ached_ to shift, to change into a faster, stronger form that could tear its way through the people surrounding me. My jaw tingled as my teeth tried to extend into a Cat's long canines. My lips curled up over my teeth and I snarled, showing the ten or so Cats that circled me with their weapons drawn and pointed at me that I meant business. They would _get out of my way_ willingly, or I would _make_ them move. I forgot that I had been raised with these Cats. After all, since when had they cared about me, the half-blood? I had always been nothing to most of them. I had three friends within my pride – my cousin, Brittany, the man who trained the children how to fight, Brian, and his mate, Nicole. The rest hated me.

But still, I didn't want to fight them. So I glared over their shoulders at the woman who stood behind them, the pride leader, the one who had ordered the pride to stop me. "Let. Me. Go." I snarled at her.

She shook her head. "You know I can't do that. We have laws. You can't just break them."

She was so cool and collected! After all that had happened today, she was so calm! It drove me over the edge. I had learned to control my temper under any circumstances, but this..... this went beyond my ability to control myself. "_They killed Sarah!_" I screamed at her, taking a step forward. "_They killed your daughter!_" Ten swords flashed to my neck. Somehow, I managed to stop myself from charging Sarah's mother – who was acting like her daughter's death meant nothing. "They _killed_ her," I repeated, my voice trembling with fury and anguish. "And you won't even let me avenge her."

The pride leader shook her head again. "I have to obey the laws just like everyone else." she reminded me. "If I let you go after her murderers, I wouldn't be fit to lead this pride."

"_You could sanction a hunt,_" I hissed. "You're just using the law as an excuse so you can hide the fact that you're a cold-hearted -"

"Enough," she cut me off, glaring. "Don't think that I won't have you killed for insubordination."

I laughed cruelly. "_Why _would I think _that?_ What have you _ever_ done to make me think that you wouldn't kill me?" I leveled a glare at her, putting every ounce of anger and hate into it that I could manage. "They killed Sarah._ My sister_. I _will _kill them," I told her, my voice as hard and cold as I could make it.

Renee, the pride leader and my mother, looked at me coolly. "You may be my daughter, but if you insist upon taking on an unsanctioned hunt, you will pay the price."

I shrugged. So be it. "Is that supposed to scare me, _Mom_," I asked icily. "I don't need a pride – I can kill those monsters on my own."

My mother looked at me and asked in a bored, detached voice. "Then will you pursue this?"

I straightened. "I will," I replied firmly.

Renee nodded curtly. "Then by the laws established by Shaylynn, I, Renee Dywer, head of the Allen Pride, cast you from our number. You are from here on out declared to be a solitary Cat, deprived of the comfort of your pride, and the warmth of our company." As soon as she finished reading my sentence, the Cats who had circled me sheathed their swords and backed away. They and Renee walked away from me, into the pine trees. Brittany, Brian, and Nicole looked back as me sadly as they went."Enjoy your revenge," Renee called over her shoulder as they all shifted into their Cat forms and disappeared into the trees.

When they were gone, I slung my pack across my shoulders and started running, picking up the trial I'd been following before my pride – my _former_ pride – had stopped me. When I'd run about fifty feet, I launched myself forward into the air so I was parallel to the ground. Then, with my arms stretched out in front of me, I shifted. It was a very quick, pleasant process – after one quick flash of heat deep in my bones, a sensation like cool water rushed over my skin, and then I had four legs, incredibly sharp senses, and a panther's black fur. I landed on the ground on my four paws, then dug my sharp claws into the forest floor and shot forward with a speed that's always exhilarating no matter how often I run with it.

My nose tasted the air, following the scents of the three vampires who had killed my sister. My fury filled me again as I smelled their sweet scents, driving me faster. I'd always thought it was ironic – vampires smelled so good, you wouldn't think they were disgusting monsters, and yet when you followed a vampire scent, that was always what you found. A monster. A murderer.

I'd been trained to hate vampires, trained to fight and kill them just like every other child in my pride had been trained, like our parents had been trained, like our grandparents had been trained, like most Cats have been trained for two thousand years. We fought vampires, protected their human victims. That's what a great number of my people have done ever since Shaylynn, the Cat who had led the Allen Pride two thousand years ago, saw a human killed by a vampire and pitied the human race.

I had been trained to fight, to track, since I was three years old. And I was _good_ at it. These three vampires I was tracking now – they had no idea who they were dealing with. I would find them easily. And I would kill them just as easily.

And if the price I had to pay for that was being kicked out of my pride, well, that was fine by me. I snorted as I remembered the words with which Renee had cast me out of the pride. _You are from here on out declared to be a solitary Cat, deprived of the comfort of your pride, and the warmth of our company_. That was more of a reward than a curse. Deprived of their _comfort?_ Deprived of their _warmth?_ Did she think I would _miss_ them? Miss the coldness toward me? Miss the hisses and insults? Miss my mother's acidic indifference? No. No, I would not miss them. I would miss Brittany, Brian, and Nicole, but I would not miss the pride as a whole.

Besides, I could still see my friends after I killed Sarah's killers. I hadn't been banned from seeing actual _people _– just from being a part of the mental closeness of a pride. Normally, the mind of each member of a pride was open to everyone – the Cats of a pride lived in their pridemates' minds as much as they lived in their own. Thus, everyone knew each other as well as they knew themselves, and they were all extremely close, closer than family. But that closeness had not been extended to me. My childhood had been cold and lonely. Being physically alone now wasn't such a change.

I followed the vampire's scents from about noon until about seven in the evening. They had a bit of a head start – my former pride's interference had slowed me down – but I was catching up. Their trail had led me north and west – I guessed I was in Northwestern Washington by now. That wasn't really surprising – most vampires prefer the North, where they can go out in the day more often. I glanced up at the sky as I ran. Purple-gray rainclouds churned overhead. I picked up my pace, sprinting through the trees. If it started raining, I would loose the trail. That couldn't happen. I paused to smell a fern frond. The scent was fairly fresh – I was maybe a hour behind them, I guessed. If I hurried, I could get to them before the bottom opened and the rain came down. I started running again.

I ran at a break-neck pace for maybe ten more miles, then I slowed down. I had just crossed a new scent, also a vampire. And here was another new one. And another, and another, so thickly layered that whoever had left these trails must have come this way very often. I kept coming across new vampire scents! I counted as I went along, and ended up with seven. Seven vampires in an incredibly close proximity. A coven? No – there were too many! Were they just a group of mutual friends? That was a little bit more likely, but not much.

Then a new thought – was this group a vampires why the three I was hunting had come here? Were they meeting them? Should I follow these new scents and hope that they led me to the ones I wanted? I considered that as I ran, still following the original trail I'd followed from Texas. What were the odds of seven vampires gathering together in the first place? And then, what were the odds of three more vampires crossing through the same region? The odds of seven vampires being together were slim – the odds of three more randomly passing through the same area were even slimmer. It couldn't be a coincidence.

I veered off my course and followed the new scents. There were trails leading every which way through these woods, but most of them were in straight lines – coming and going from or to one place. I followed the scents for maybe twenty miles before I started to hear them. Two sets of feet paced slowly, close to each other, circling, then darting forward or back when one of them lunged and the other dodged. They were fighting. A high, tinkling voice cheered. "Come on, Jasper!" the voice – a female's voice – cried. Huh. Not fighting, then – _playing_. The concept wasn't foreign to me – Cats play all the time. But _vampires_..... that was different. I listened closer, until I picked up the sounds of their breathing. I only could only hear seven vampires, but maybe the three I was hunting knew I was after them, and were trying throw me off by taking a roundabout approach.

I slowed down and shifted into an In Between form. In this form, the form my people wore almost as often as the Cat form, I looked like any human, but my heart did not beat, my senses remained razor sharp, and I kept my Cat strength and near-indestructibility. I needed this form now – any Cat form is about as tall as a horse, and if you're that big, it's hard to sneak up on anything, especially a vampire. I carefully set my pack down and crept forward silently. Part of a young Cat's training is learning how to walk – or run – in any terrain without making a sound. And I'd excelled in my training. When I was so close that I could hear the fabric sighing as the fighters moved, I dropped silently to all fours, slinking forward with my stomach barely an inch off the ground. Again, I moved silently.

And then there was just a wall of ferns between me and the group of vampires. I crouched low behind the leafy plants, and peered through their fronds. I was looking at a three story, beautiful white house. It was very old, and it definitely wasn't the place one would expect to find vampires. Two males were horsing around in the front yard. One was dark-haired and _absolutely huge_, but I knew the other would win the play-fight. _He _was blond, lean, fast, and so covered with battle scars that he had to from the South. He was a trained fighter. It was in the way he moved. His opponent, though obviously stronger, didn't have the skill he would need to beat him. I looked back toward the house.

Seated on the grand front steps of the beautiful house were five vampires, two males and three females. One of the males had golden-blond hair, and looked to be in his mid-twenties. By his side was a female with caramel-colored hair – his mate, I assumed, since they were holding hands. She looked..... well,_ motherly_ was the only word I could think of to describe her. The other two females were like day and night – one honey blond, tall, and statuesque, the other short, slender, and black-haired.

But it was the other male on the steps that caught my eye. He was tall and slender, but still muscular, with tousled bronze-colored hair. He was _beautiful_. He was almost completely still – besides the occasional chuckle and shake of his head – as he, well, lounged on the steps, but he nonetheless excluded a subtle grace that drew the eye. There was a humored half-smile on his perfectly sculpted lips, like he already knew the outcome of the fight in front of him, just like I did. And his eyes were the incredible shade of molten gold. Wait – _gold?_ No – he was a vampire! He couldn't have gold eyes. But he did! And now that I looked again, I noticed that _all_ the vampires there had gold eyes. How bizarre! How..... my eyes flicked of their own accord back to the bronze-haired male. How hypnotic.

He was a vampire, something I had learned to hate. And even if I had been raised without what some might call brainwashing, I had my own reasons to hate vampires. Six people I'd loved had been killed by vampires, and I'd only ever cared for eleven people in my life. Amelia, the closest thing to a mother I'd ever had, was dead. Brittany's mother – my aunt – was dead. Sarah was dead. Micheal and Nadia were dead. And Darren, Micheal and Nadia's son, who had been so much more than a friend to me, was dead. I should have despised this bronze-haired vampire on sight. But there was something about him. Perhaps, since he didn't have the traditional red eyes, my mind was more open to just how gorgeous he was. All Cats love beauty – in art, in music, in dance..... in anything. And this vampire was _very _beautiful.

However, as preoccupied as I was with staring at him, another part of my mind was still listening, still completely on guard – the result of a warrior's training. So when the wind changed direction, making the leaves rustle in a different way, I heard it. I realized that this gust of wind would blow my scent directly into the faces of the seven vampires. But there was only enough time for me to tense, preparing to run, before that happened.

My hair swirled around my face and shoulders in the sudden wind, and in almost the same instant, seven vampires whirled to face me – or at least, where I was hiding. I ground my teeth, mentally kicking myself for getting caught, and slowly stood up, facing this strange coven. I was still tensed – if this turned into a fight, I wanted to be ready.

Edward's Point of View

I didn't know why Emmett insisted on doing this. Had he _ever_ beaten Jasper? No. Had he changed his fighting style since he'd lost the last time – which had been last night? No. And yet he always wanted a rematch. And Jasper always beat him. Honestly, Emmett had challenged Jasper so many times, Jasper knew his fighting style inside and out. He could practically predict every move Emmett would make. But oh, well. That was just Emmett. We all loved him for it.

Jasper was just about to end the fight and take Emmett down. But then the wind changed, sweeping in a new direction across our faces. Such a gust shouldn't have brought with it anything more than the scent of the rain, the trees, the animals. But it did. My nose filled with a strange scent, like nothing I'd ever smelled before in my eight decades or so of being a vampire. This scent was a very natural smell, like freesia or lavender, with a slightly tangy edge to it that reminded me of a mountain lion, or something like it. A very pleasant smell, fragrant enough to be pleasing, and animal enough to not be appetizing. But it meant that something was here, close, and we had not even heard it coming, which was a serious cause for alarm. We usually heard everything, and, even if we didn't, my or Alice's gift was enough to give us a warning. But I hadn't heard a thing, and Alice had seen nothing.

My family and I spun in unison to face the wind, and saw..... a _girl_. She was half-hidden behind the tall ferns that bordered our lawn, crouched low to the ground. She was crouched in a strange way, though, on the tips of her bare toes and her fingertips, with her elbows and knees bent so she was coiled like a spring. The posture was distinctly cat-like. She _looked_ a little like a cat, too – the point of her chin, the way her cheekbones slanted across her face, the shape of her eyes. I felt a little shocked – she was _pretty!_ No, she was too..... _fierce_, in a way, to be pretty. Beautiful – that was a better word. I looked closer as she clenched her jaw and stood, her eyes flickering back and forth between us, like she was sizing us up as opponents. That alone surprised me – she didn't look more than seventeen years old, and yet she looked us over with the cool, practiced eye of someone much older. But, then again, _I_ was over a hundred years old, and I looked seventeen. Who knew how old she was?

I tried to listen to her thoughts to find out why she'd been watching us. Actually, I was pretty sure she'd been watching _me_. But I couldn't hear a whisper. Nothing. I felt vaguely disturbed. I'd never not been able to hear someone's thoughts. Carlisle glanced at me, wondering at her intentions, and the only answer I could give him was a hopeless gesture. His eyes widened. _You can't _hear_ her?_ he asked. I shook my head, fighting down my alarm. Jasper was already evaluating her emotions, and I felt them in his mind. There was anger there, and a deep, deep pain, but neither were directed at us. What _was_ directed at us was wariness and curiosity. And then there was frustration, aimed at herself, for being detected, Jasper thought.

Carlisle stepped forward, determined to settle this peacefully. Judging by the way the girl tensed as he approached her, I didn't think that was likely. "Good evening," Carlisle greeted her politely, stopping a good ways away from her. "I am Carlisle Cullen, and this is my family." A tiny crease formed between the girl's eyebrows when he said the word_ family_, then quickly vanished as she smoothed her face into a blank mask. She nodded stiffly in greeting, but made no move to introduce herself. Carlisle didn't press her, and moved on to a different question like a skilled diplomat. "What brings you to this area?" he inquired.

The girls eyes tightened, and through Jasper I felt her anger and pain flare. "Looking for someone," she said shortly, and started to back away. "Which I need to keep doing."

Carlisle was going to let her go with out question, but at that moment, the storm that had been brewing for hours began, sending a torrent of rain down on us. The girls eyes widened. "_No!_" she screamed, and plunged back into the trees. Carlisle, worried about her, followed, and the rest of us, worried about _him_, followed both of them. We followed the strange girl down one of our main scent trails, to the edge of the clearing we used to play baseball. From there, the girl ran along a different trail, freshly laid by nomads, no doubt. But, fresh as it was, the heavy rain was washing it away. The girl ran, so incredibly fast that soon I was the only one able to keep up with her, along this new trail until it began to fade away in spots, and then vanished all together.

There the girl stopped, he eyes huge and her face dead white. She started shaking, and suddenly she looked like a frightened girl, rather than the hardened fighter she had seemed to be at my house. "No," she said again, her voice strangled, her eyes unfocused. "_Please_. No." She covered her eyes with one hand as the rest of my family caught up with us.

Esme, ever soft and loving, immediately wanted to comfort this girl who had stumbled into our lives. She was at the girl's side in a flash, putting her hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?" she murmured gently.

The girl, more controlled now, stepped away from Esme's hand. "I'm fine," she told my mother figure. "I just really needed to find them." Jasper felt her rage swell, and I suddenly realized that if this girl had found who she was looking for, she might have killed them. And then a crushing emptiness and hopelessness crashed down on her. Jasper regarded her with cautious eyes, made wary by her emotions.

Carlisle didn't believe the girl, however, when she said she was fine, and his irrepressible compassion showed itself. "Well, we're all soaked," he said kindly. "Why don't you come back to our home so you can dry off and change?"

The girl, her eyes still far away and her face still pale, nodded mechanically. "Thank you," she said her voice hollow. "That would be nice."


	2. Guest

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. You all know who does.

Edward's Point of View

We all ran back to my family's home at a slower pace. Along the way, the girl – who hadn't told us her name yet – picked up a pack that must have weighed half as much as she did. She hadn't had it earlier, so I assumed that she'd dropped it there before she'd stopped to watch my family. I offered to carry it, but she just looked at me strangely, like she couldn't believe that I would offer to take it off her hands, and replied that she could carry it herself.

When we got home, she hesitated outside the front door. Carlisle, though he wondered about her hesitancy, encouraged her to come in, and she did. She stood self-consciously in our front room as her chocolate brown eyes took in every detail of the room. The way she looked around – it was like she was noting possible escape routes, planning her options in case we turned on her. The only time her eyes showed a bit of life was when they lit on my piano. Interest flared up in her face for a second, only to vanish again when she wiped all emotion from her face.

Esme, hating that she seemed so tense and distrustful of us, tried to set her at ease. "Why don't I find you a towel and a change of clothes?" she suggested kindly.

"I have clothes," the girl answered quietly, gesturing to her pack.

"They sat out in the rain," Esme pointed out. "Really, it's no trouble if you need something."

Bella, her eyes oddly uncertain and surprised, looked at Esme, and offered a tentative smile. "Thank you," she replied, some actual warmth in her voice, though the words fell awkwardly from her tongue. "But my clothes are dry." She gestured to her pack again. "It's waterproof."

Thrilled that she was making progress with the girl, Esme started up the stairs, and beckoned for the girl to follow. "I'll show you where you can dry off and change," she told the girl.

The girl shifted uneasily on her feet for a moment, but followed Esme up the stairs. "Bella," she murmured as she went. "My name is Bella." I wasn't surprised that the girl – Bella – had responded to my mother. Esme was so gentle and caring – everyone responded to her.

I was _very _curious about Bella. Who was she? _What_ was she? Where had she come from? Who was she looking for, and why was she looking for them? I listened to Esme's thoughts as she got Bella a towel and took her to one of the spare rooms. _She's such a lovely girl_, Esme was thinking. _She seems so fragile, though. And I've never seen someone so shocked by people being kind! It's like she's not used to being cared for at all. Oh, I hope that's not the case – surely she has someone, _somewhere_. There are the people she was looking for, but she lost the trail, and I don't think she knows where to find them. Poor girl_, Esme thought sympathetically, her heart aching for the girl she'd just met. _I wonder if we can help her. I think she needs help, though I daresay she won't ask for it. She looks..... like she has no hope._ I looked at Bella's face through Esme's eyes, and saw that she was right – Bella _did _look hopeless. Out loud, Esme said, "You can change here. Just come back downstairs when you're finished.

Bella smiled shyly again. "Thank you."

Esme turned, and was going to walk back downstairs to join us and wait for Bella, but movement in a decorative mirror on the wall of the hallway caught her eye. The mirror faced the spare room, and neither Esme nor Bella had closed the room's door. So Esme could see Bella turn her back toward the door and pull her shirt over her shoulders, exposing the skin of her back. Esme was about to look away, but then she noticed something about the reflection of Bella's back that made her gasp in horror and spin to face Bella. Downstairs, seeing everything that Esme could see, I jumped to my feet, hissing in fury.

Bella's back had been turned into a sick piece of art. One long scar divided her back vertically down the middle from below her shoulder blades to just above her hips. Branching off that one long scar were other, thinner scars, which swirled across the skin of her back in fierce, aerodynamic designs. These patterns covered her back like a tattoo, except..... these patterns looked like they had been burned into her skin.

"Oh!" Esme gasped. Bella whirled around to look at Esme in alarm, and I swiftly blocked Esme's thoughts so I wouldn't see anything I shouldn't. A red mist clouded my vision. Who had done that to Bella?! Whoever it was, I wanted to hunt them down and hurt them like they had hurt her. They had to be sick, monstrous, to do something like that.

Emmett, Jasper, Carlisle, and Rosalie, who didn't know why Esme had gasped, jumped up. Emmett and Jasper thought that Bella had attacked her, but I grabbed Emmett's arm. "It's fine," I growled, still angry about what had happened to Bella. "Nothing happened."

"What is it?" Bella demanded upstairs.

"Oh," Esme said weakly, "I – I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you, it's just – Bella, your _back!_" she cried in anguish. _That poor child! _she thought._ Oh, if I _ever_ find who did this....._ I almost smiled. Esme could be quite the fierce mother lion.

"Oh." Bella's voice was emotionless. "That." I heard fabric slide over skin, and I assumed that she had put a shirt on. I opened my mind to Esme's again, and saw that I was right. Bella picked up a towel and started drying her hair. "It happened a long time ago," she said flatly as she rubbed the towel through her long dark hair. And that was all she said on the subject.

Esme was still reeling, but she made her way downstairs again, her face bone white and her eyes huge in her abnormally pale face. A very worried Carlisle rushed to her side and put a hand on her cheek. "Are you all right?" he whispered. "What happened? What's wrong with Bella's back?"

Esme's miserable eyes met his. "_I'm _fine," she whispered, "but that poor girl....." she shook her head, her expression shattered. "She has these scars," she breathed, "all over her back. I think someone _burned_ her."

Carlisle's eyes widened in disgust and horror. "Burned her?" he repeated, shocked. "Dear God."

"It happened years ago," Bella's voice said coolly from the foot of the staircase. We all jumped – again, we hadn't heard her coming. She walked into the room, her expression calm. I looked closely at Bella, this strange girl with a past she obviously didn't want to talk about.

She was wearing a black tank top and shorts, identical to the ones she'd been wearing before she'd changed. Her hair, now merely damp, was brown. And now that I was looking for things that hinted at a dark past, I realized that each of her hands, wrists, and arms had several silvery scars crisscrossing her skin. But these scars looked like Jasper's scars – scars from fighting vampires. Jasper caught my eye – he had noticed them, too. His wariness of Bella rose.

Esme quickly pulled Bella to one of the couches in the front room, and sat on it with her. She took Bella's hand, and, though Bella looked surprised, she didn't pull away. Everyone followed their example and sat down, and we all looked to Carlisle to start asking questions, which he did with a smile after we all introduced ourselves. "So, Bella," he began, "who were you looking for?"

"Just some friends," Bella said smoothly, but Jasper felt how much she hated them and knew she was lying. "I found their scents near yours, and I thought that maybe they were coming to meet you." Hope suddenly rose in her eyes. "Do you think you might recognize them if I showed you some pictures? Do you think you might know where I can find them?"

Carlisle smiled again. "If we recognize them, then we'll certainly help you," he promised. I winced slightly – I would have to tell Carlisle that Bella probably meant to kill the vampires she was looking for.

Bella nodded eagerly and shot back upstairs, returning a split second later with a notebook in her hands. She flipped through the pages quickly, and I caught glimpses of several drawings of different people – Bella was an excellent artist. She found the page she needed, and I saw her eyes darken with pain and anger before she turned the notebook around to show the portraits to us.

The drawing was of two men and one woman. One of the men had ordinary features. The other had hair that was darker than the first man's – the pictures were drawn in regular pencil, so it was impossible to tell what color hair they had. The woman looked distinctly wild, and had very long, tangled hair. All three of them were drawn with snarls on their faces. As Carlisle looked at the picture, doubt formed in his mind. It was clear from the way they were drawn that Bella hated these people, whoever they were. He had never seen them before, and he was glad he hadn't – he wouldn't be lying to Bella when he said that he didn't know where she could find them.

Carlisle and the rest of my family shook their heads. "I've never seen them before," Emmett said.

Bella's expression fell before she controlled herself, showing just how broken she was by this news. For whatever reason, it was vitally important to her to find these vampires. Loosing them was terrible to her. She nodded, her mouth a tight line. "Thank you," she whispered. She closed her notebook and rubbed her eyes with one shaking hand.

Pity shook Carlisle and Esme to their cores. "Where will you go from here?" Esme inquired, a plan forming in her mind. Carlisle met her eyes with silent agreement in his own – he knew Esme well enough to know what she was thinking, and he approved of her plan.

Bella laughed one sharp laugh. "Don't know," she muttered. "I don't have anywhere _to_ go."

Esme was shocked. "You don't have any family you can go to?" she asked, aghast.

This time Bella laughed in earnest. But Jasper could feel the pain rolling off her in waves. "Oh, I have family, but I _really _can't go to them."

Carlisle frowned slightly in concern. "Why not?"

Bella looked at him, bleak amusement in her eyes. "I had a bit of a disagreement with my mother yesterday," she replied lightly, "and if I go back, she'll kill me."

Carlisle's lips twitched. _She sounds just like a teenager_, he thought, amused. But I was watching Bella's eyes. And I didn't thing she was joking. "If you're worried about her being angry," he started to say, but Bella cut him off.

"No, no," she interrupted, dark humor shining in her eyes. "You've misunderstood me. When I say, 'she'll kill me', I don't mean, 'she'll be angry at me', or something like that. When I say, 'she'll kill me', I mean that _literally_. If I go back, _my mother will kill me_."

Carlisle and Esme's eyes popped wide open, and they stared at her, totally stunned. Alice and Emmett exchanged wide-eyed glances. Even Jasper and Rosalie looked horrified."You mean that if you go back," Esme whispered, "you _own mothe__r_ will -"

"Stab me through the heart?" Bella finished. "Yes."

Esme exhaled a shaky breath. "I'm sorry, Bella, but that's terrible!" she exclaimed.

Bela laughed again, harshly. "And yet it's true. Story of my life."

Esme's plan resolved itself in her mind. "Well, then!" she declared. "Since you don't know where you'll go, would you like to stay here with us until you figure it out?"

Carlisle nodded firmly. Bella's jaw dropped. And Rosalie sprang to her feet. "Are you out of your _mind_, Esme?" she screeched. "A little lost girl comes wandering through the forest and makes puppy eyes at you, and you're just going to let her _move in_ with us?! What do we know about her? She'll probably kill us the second we stop watching her!"

Bella closed her mouth. Her face went completely smooth and her eyes went hard. She leaned back against the back of the couch and crossed her arms. She suddenly looked dangerous. "Well, well," she almost purred. "So the rose has thorns."

Rosalie turned on her. "You bet I do," she snarled. "And I _suggest_ you leave."

"Rosalie!" Esme gasped.

Bella's eyes, already hard and cold, narrowed. "Do you think I would repay Esme's hospitality by harming any one of her family," she asked, her voice deathly calm. "Do you think I am as dishonorable as that?"

Rosalie stalked forward and leaned over Bella threateningly. Bella, however, didn't move in response, and her lack of response to Rosalie's actions somehow made her seem more deadly – like a snake, coiled and ready to strike. "I think," Rosalie hissed, "that if you don't leave, you might get hurt."

A slow smile spread across Bella's face. "Again, I will not harm any of Esme's family after she has treated me with kindness and respect. But," she added, her voice dangerously low, "I do _not_ like being threatened. And if you try to harm me, I will defend myself. I won't hurt you – but I won't let you harm me, either." She straightened her shoulders. "I give you my word that I will not attack any of you – as long as I am not attacked first."

Rosalie backed away from Bella, now that she'd realized that she wasn't going to get a rise out of her. "And what does your word mean to me?" she asked coolly.

Bella sighed deeply, like she was annoyed. "I would like to stay here, but I don't want to cause trouble, so I'll tell you what – let me stay here without causing an argument, and the first time you think I mean you or your family harm, tell me and I'll leave immediately."

Rosalie looked like she wanted to argue again, but Bella met her eyes. And there was pleading in those eyes, genuine pleading, like she was desperate. And I thought that maybe she was. Rosalie scowled at her. "Fine," she snapped, and stormed up the stairs. "But don't make me regret it!"

Esme was ecstatic that Bella had agreed to stay here. Carlisle was glad too – he wanted to help her. Jasper was as wary as Rosalie, but didn't sense any bad intentions in her. Emmett was, obviously, gung-ho about the idea – with Bella, or numbers were even, which would also even up sports teams. Alice was intrigued by Bella, and eager to learn more about her.

And I..... I didn't know how I felt. I was curious, certainly, and I wasn't opposed to Bella's staying here. But there was another edge to my feelings, one I couldn't figure out. It was almost eager, excited, and anxious. I pushed it away, intending to deal with it later. I studied Bella's face, taking in the relief and weariness in her warm brown eyes, and wondered how long it had been since she'd had a place to go where she could be at peace. Considering the fact that she seemed convinced that her mother wouldn't have a problem with killing her, I guessed that it had been a while. I felt a resolve building in me. She'd obviously had a hard life. I was determined that her time with us would give her what she needed.


	3. Jasper and Alice

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

I had to be stark raving _out of my mind_. I _had _to be – why else would I agree to stay at a vampire coven's house until I figured out what to do next? Was I crazy? Stupid? A combination of both? I knew how my former pride would have answered – yes, yes, undoubtedly _yes!_

But..... maybe it didn't have anything to do with insanity or stupidity. Maybe it had more to do with the gently concerned look in Carlisle and Esme's eyes. Maybe it had something to do with their instant desire to help me, even though they didn't know who I was. Maybe it had something to do with the way Esme looked at me, so kind and caring, and the fact that hardly anyone cared about me, so being cared about by a total stranger felt incredible, and I wanted to stay in that environment.

Maybe it was Edward's golden eyes, looking at me with mingled curiosity and worry.

And maybe it was curiosity. Where else would I be able to interact with vampires like this, with their golden eyes and civility? I wanted to learn more about them. And as Esme walked back upstairs with me, I had my chance to ask some questions. "Excuse me," I murmured, still feeling awkward with asking such open questions. A Cat's usual style of getting information is spying. "But would you mind telling me why your eyes are gold?"

Esme smiled and laughed. "I was wondering when you'd ask." She entered the guest room I'd changed in earlier and sat on the bed. She patted the mattress beside her. Despite how nice she'd been to me, a part of me was still screaming at me to run away, fast. This part of my mind made me hesitate, but I ignored it, and sat down next to Esme anyway, whose lips curved up into a pleased smile. "Well," she began, "Carlisle was the one who first thought of our lifestyle, and only five other vampires that we know of are like us, so I'm sure you haven't heard about it. My family and I have given up drinking human blood."

I blinked, not quite sure I'd heard her correctly, although I have excellent hearing. "You don't..... hunt humans?" I repeated, dazed. Esme smiled and shook her head. "Then what _do_ you hunt?" I asked, still trying to wrap my mind around the whole vampires-not-hunting-humans concept.

"Animals," Esme replied, an amused twinkle in her eyes.

"Animals," I parroted. I'm sure I sounded like a fool, repeating everything she said, but it was just so _strange!_

As if she would read my mind, Esme patted my hand soothingly. "Don't worry – no one understands it at first." She smiled at me again and stood. "I'm sure it's been a long day for you – why don't you get some sleep?"

"I don't sleep," I corrected her automatically before I clenched my jaw and remembered that the less these people knew about my kind, the better.

But I couldn't take the words back. Esme's eyebrows rose curiously. "You don't?" she asked. I shook my head, my lips pressed tightly together, and Esme seemed to understand that I wouldn't talk about it. "Well, then," she continued, "why don't I give you a moment alone so you can unpack." And she actually reached down and stroked my hair! I'd never, _ever_, been touched so casually before – it was like Esme just gave affectionate contact without thinking about it, like it was a reflex. Maybe it was. "And I'm sure you'd like some time to think," she added gently. "You've had a rough day." then she slipped quietly of of the room – _my_ room, I supposed.

Woah – _my room_. I'd never had a room before. My pride had always wandered through the United States in a fixed east to west pattern, fighting vampires as we went along. Our resting places had been the ground, or a tree. Having a room, a room with _actual furniture_, a place to unpack things, a place to go when you didn't feel like facing the world, my own private space – even it was only temporary – gave me an odd feeling. It wasn't entirely bad. I almost thought I liked it.

So, to try another new thing, I started to unpack the things I had in my pack. I only had one other change of clothes – the wet ones I had changed out of earlier that evening – so there was nothing to put in the ornate wooden drawers, but I did start to fill the shelf that stood in one corner.

First I unpacked my weapons, one of a Cat's most important possessions. My _katana_, a slightly curved, single-edged sword with a blade a little more than two feet long – the sword often associated with the Japanese samurai. My _wakizashi_, or _shoto_, the shorter sword that was worn with the _katana_. My _tanto_, the similarly shaped dagger of the Japanese set. All three of the blades had been specially made, and could cut through anything – including a vampire's skin.

Then I laid out my notebook, the one I drew special things in. Pictures of all my friends and family were in those pages, as were landscapes I'd found especially beautiful and other random things that had caught my eye over the years. After that, I put the few trinkets I had on the shelf – the piece of raw diamond I'd found in Africa, the small panther that Brian had carved out of ebony for me on my thirteenth birthday – the same year I'd gotten my Marks.

I remembered that year very clearly. Brian had nominated me for the Marks, and I'd passed the tests. I'd gone to the Cat's underground stronghold, the place where we stored our written history, laws, literature, and records – an underground stronghold under Stonehenge, which had been built by my people long ago to mark the entrance. I'd gone there, and the elite soldiers who guarded the place and the relics in it had seared the designs onto my back. It had been painful, but the pain was just another test – one of pain endurance. If a Cat started to get his Marks, but couldn't take the pain, then he had to wear them unfinished. And to have unfinished Marks is like carrying around a sign that says _Look at me! I'm a weakling! _for the rest of his life.

It had been an incredible honor to receive my Marks – I was the youngest Cat to_ ever_ receive the Marks, which were a symbol of battle skill, and an extensive knowledge of the histories of every people and the laws. The Marks are the highest commendation any Cat can receive – young Cat's dream of it, and older Cat's sigh over it, wishing that they'd been skilled enough to receive them.

I'd received them. And I'd come home after I'd healed enough to travel, expecting Renee to finally accept me. I'd gotten my _Marks_, after all – an honor she'd only _dreamed _about. But she'd still treated me with the same coldness, the same disinterest. That had been the year I'd given up on trying to make my mother love me. And my Marks, which I should have worn with pride, had become an unwelcome reminder that nothing I did was good enough.

I forced my thoughts back to the present, away from the unpleasant memories, and brushed my fingers over my few possessions. There was so much history displayed here – personal history that I didn't really want to broadcast. Now that I thought about it, having these things on display was like baring my soul and all my hurts for all to see. I put everything back in my pack.

And then I just sat there on the edge of the bed, wondering what I was supposed to do now. I wanted to go explore the house, but at the same time I didn't want to leave my room. It would uncomfortable to walk around the house filled with near-strangers who would watch me but say nothing. Rosalie might even follow me silently to make sure I didn't do anything she didn't approve of – she distrusted me that much. Not that I blamed her. I would have been equally wary of a stranger in my former pride. Actually, I was _glad_ that Rosalie and Jasper were cautious – if Esme was so welcoming to me, who knew what she might invite to stay in her house? She needed a few practical people around her to balance out her emotion.

Only a few minutes had passed since Esme and I had gone upstairs, and the rest of the Cullens had been silent since then. I didn't expect the silence to last. It was like the calm before the storm, I thought. Rosalie might have more to say, and Jasper, too, probably.

Sure enough, Jasper spoke up a moment later, but his voice was pitched so it wouldn't carry. Irritation made me frown – I wanted to hear what he was saying. If he was planning to kill me as soon as I let my guard down, I wanted to know about it. So I let myself shift a little further toward my Cat self, which had stronger ears. My canines extended until they were half as long as my index finger, and my nails changed into black claws that were about two inches long.

And suddenly I could hear Jasper's voice. "I don't like it, Carlisle," he growled.

Someone, presumably Carlisle sighed. "I know, Jasper," Carlisle murmured, also keeping his voice down. "But surely you can see that she needs help."

Jasper made an angry noise. "Oh, yes, help finding the three she was looking for," he muttered. "I pity them if she ever finds them." I stiffened. Did Jasper somehow know why I was looking for the three vampires?

"What do you mean?" Carlisle asked, wariness creeping into his voice.

"I mean, she _hates_ them!" Jasper hissed. "_Hates_ them, with a fervor I haven't felt since I left the South. If she finds them, I wouldn't put it past her to kill them." I was rigid with fury. Jasper knew. He knew how I felt about those monsters. He knew that I wanted them dead, and that I would have no problem with making that happen. That was _my_ emotion! _My_ hate! He had _no right_ to feel something that personal of mine, and he _definitely_ had no right to tell others about it!

But if he knew how I'd felt – _felt_ how I'd felt – how did I know that he couldn't feel what I was feeling right now? I drew in a deep breath and held it, wrestling my anger back under control, only releasing my held breath when my fury was locked back up inside me. I would have to be more careful here than I'd previously thought.

Carlisle was silent for a second after hearing what Jasper had said, but then he spoke again. "That may be true. However, I can't shake the feeling that she's hurting, in more ways than even you can know, Jasper. And I believe we can help her. I won't turn her away for hating someone – and she lost their trail anyway."

Jasper sighed. "She_ is _in pain," he admitted grudgingly. "Deep pain, that's probably been there a while."

Now I was completely humiliated. If my heart had been beating, my blood would have rushed to my face, burning it with shame. It was one thing to share my hatred with his family, but my _pain?_ That was inexcusable.

Someone stirred downstairs. "Jasper?" Alice's voice inquired. "What's wrong?"

"I think she can hear us," he answered, barely even breathing the words.

Well, if he already knew..... "I can," I said flatly, my voice loud enough to reach their ears. "And I would _appreciate_ it, Jasper, if you kept my emotions to yourself." I shifted back into the form I'd been wearing before I' eavesdropped on Jasper and Carlisle, letting my claws slide back into my fingertips and turn back into nails, and letting my canine teeth shrink back into a normal size. I didn't want to hear any more.

But, of course, it wasn't that easy. Light, rhythmic footsteps were coming up the stairs, and heading for my room. I repressed a sigh, and hoped that whoever it was wasn't coming here. But she was. "Bella?" Alice's high voice called softly through the door, "can I come in?"

_No_, I wanted to say, _go away_. But this _was_ her house. And I didn't want to be rude. "Yes," I answered, hiding my reluctance – although Jasper knew about it anyway – and keeping my voice and face unreadable.

Alice opened the door and poked her head inside. "Are you sure you don't mind?" she whispered. I nodded, and she walked gracefully into my room, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of where I sat on the edge of my bed.

We didn't say anything for a while, each of us trying to puzzle out the other's intent. Finally, "I'm surprised he let you come up here alone," I said, meaning Jasper. Their body language had me almost convinced that they were mates.

Alice smiled. "He means well – he's just a little overprotective." She cocked hr head like a little bird and studied me thoughtfully. "And, to be perfectly honest, I can kind of see why, in this case. You look like you could be dangerous, if you wanted to be."

She had no idea. I nodded once. "If I wanted to be," I reminded her, using her own words. "Which I don't." Not to her, anyway.

Alice grinned. "I know. If you'd meant us harm, Jasper would have picked up on it and warned us." I barely stopped myself from clenching my jaw. I didn't like the insight Jasper had to me. Alice noticed my effort and correctly guessed it's cause. She trilled a laugh. "You'll get used to it," she told me.

"I doubt it," I murmured, almost to myself. Especially if he continued to tell the world what I was feeling – I had some tangled up emotions that I didn't want people to know about. Maybe I should just leave..... go stay with one of a couple friends – neither of which lived in North America.

Alice sighed. "I'm sorry," she said softly, looking up at me from where she sat, her short, spiky black hair framing her contrite face. "We shouldn't have been talking about you like that." I hadn't expected an apology.

I glanced down at Alice in surprise. "It's fine," I replied.

She shook her head. "No, it isn't," she insisted. "It's your business. We should have stayed out of it." She smiled slightly. "Not that we're not curious about why you're here, but that's your story to tell, when you're ready to tell it." This was.....weird. I'd been insulted in a lot of ways, by a lot of people. Not one of them had ever apologized to me. Alice, still looking at me, frowned. "Why are you looking at me like I just told you that there are purple apes covered with pink polka dots playing soccer in the front yard?" I couldn't help but smile at that. I briefly considered lying to Alice, but she saw it in my face, and scowled. She didn't have to say anything.

Properly chastised, I answered her question truthfully. "Because I've never been apologized to," I admitted, my voice low. It sounded so much more pathetic out loud – I wished I hadn't said it. I didn't want pity. Alice's eyebrows rose. "Well," she said decisively, "that'll change while you're here." She stood. "Do you want any help unpacking?" she asked.

I was startled into telling her the truth again. "I don't really have a lot to unpack."

Alice glanced at my pack. "Uh, that looks like it can carry a lot of stuff," she told me.

I shrugged. "It can, but it's not very full. These and my wet clothes are the only clothes I had time to pack." I wasn't about to tell her about my weapons.

Alice's eyes widened. "That's it?"

I frowned slightly. "Yes."

Someone downstairs laughed. "Oh, Bella," Edward said, "You really shouldn't have said that."

I glanced at Alice to see what Edward meant, and was slightly alarmed by what I saw. A slow smile was beginning to spread across Alice's face, and there was a subtle gleam in her eyes. "What does he mean?" I demanded.

Alice's smile widened. "Shopping."


	4. Shopping and Fighting

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. You all know who does.

Edward's Point of View

Well, Alice wasn't one to dawdle – not with shopping to look forward to. In fact, she wasn't even willing to wait until the next day. About thirty minutes after Bella admitted that she only had two pairs of clothes, we were all getting into my Volvo and Carlisle's Mercedes, and heading to Seattle. And the only reason we didn't leave immediately was because Bella argued – fiercely. She said she didn't have much money, and then flat-out refused when Alice offered to lend her some. She was already indebted to us, she said – she would not take our money. But Alice would not be deterred. She argued Bella down, until Bella's last excuse was that her clothes – a black tank-top and shorts – weren't suitable for shopping in Seattle. She would be too conspicuous.

Of course, that didn't bother Alice either, because if there was one thing that Alice had in abundance, it was clothes. She pulled Bella into her gigantic closet, and when Bella emerged a few minutes later, she was wearing a deep blue satin shirt that flowed perfectly over her slender frame, designer jeans, black ballet flats – and a frown. Alice practically shoved her out of the house, her mind filled with chagrin – she'd been unable to put Bella in something with a lower back, because that would have shown Bella's scars.

My eyes lingered on Bella. She looked lovely – that color of blue brought the creamy color of her fair skin. But why was I thinking that? It was just an observation, surely. Maybe. The way my stomach turned over whenever she glanced at me certainly wasn't objective. _Stop it, Edward_, I scolded myself. _You don't even know her_. But that didn't keep me from telling her how lovely she looked, and it didn't stop me from feeling happy when she smiled back at me, her smile a mixture of surprise, pleasure, uncertainty, and shyness.

Bella, Alice, Jasper, Esme, and I rode in the Volvo, with Carlisle, Rosalie, and Emmett following behind us in the Mercedes. Alice was her usual perky, talkative self, so she kept up an almost constant stream of small talk from where she sat between Bella and Jasper in the back seat. She tried to ask Bella about where she came from, but most of the time Bella just shook her head instead of answering. I did learn a few things about her, though, from the few times she did respond. She had traveled a lot her whole life. She didn't have much family – or friends, I thought. And she was very self-reliant.

Bella kept her face and voice smooth and controlled for much of the drive, but from little slips in her control, I discerned a few things on my own. From a flicker of wistfulness and sadness in her eyes as she said that she didn't have many relatives, I inferred that maybe she had lost some of her family, or that she wanted one. When I saw a flash of weariness in her eyes as she spoke of traveling her whole life, I guessed that maybe she wished that she'd been able to stay in one place and rest.

And then we reached the mall in Seattle, and it was time to shop. Alice led the way inside the mall, dragging a resisting Bella along with her, and the rest of us trailed behind her, watching Alice tow Bella from store to store with amused eyes. We did a little shopping here and there – Rosalie picked out a top she liked, and Esme found an anniversary present for Carlisle – but we didn't really need anything.

Bella was actually very good at fending off Alice's suggestions about what she should buy. She was unmovable – she only bought a few pairs of reasonably priced jeans and shirts. Nothing more. Not the Gucci purse Alice thought she would like, or the blue dress that Alice insisted would look perfect on her. She was adamant. It was a little impressive – most of our family just gave in and bought whatever Alice wanted us to buy so she would stop annoying us. But not Bella.

Alice wasn't going to let Bella rain on her shopping parade, however, and bought several things that caught her eye, including a shirt that she insisted would be the new "in" fashion in three weeks. I didn't argue with her on that point – I learned not to bet against Alice a long time ago. Within two hours, Alice had Jasper loaded down with shopping bags. Not all of it was for her, though. From looking at the sizes of a few of the things she bought, I thought that some things might be for Bella.

Jasper was running out of ways to balance the mountain of bags he carried without looking too conspicuous, so Bella offered to take the bags out to the car. Jasper unloaded most of the bags into Bella's arms, then she left, looking relieved to be getting away from the noisy crowds of people. I pressed the keys to my Volvo into her hand as she passed, and was rewarded again with one of her quick, slightly uncertain smiles. Jasper glanced at me strangely when he processed the leap in my emotions, but I just shook my head.

Emmett watched Bella go with a smirk on his face. _Better watch her and make sure she doesn't steal the car and make a run for it_, he thought humorously. He wasn't really worried about it – he was just being sarcastic. But that got me thinking – Bella had been quick to offer to take the bags out. So, feeling incredibly guilty, I followed Bella's movements through the eyes of the people she walked past in the mall and then the parking lot. But we had parked far out in the lot, and soon I ran out of people to see through.

But then she appeared in a new mind. I could see that she had opened the trunk of my car and was in the process of stuffing the bags into it, trying to be careful of our purchases. And then I actually heard what the person I was seeing through was thinking.

I stopped dead in the middle of the mall, momentarily frozen in horror, then spun toward the nearest exit and started walking fast, hating that the humans around me forced me to move so slowly. My family caught up to me quickly, silently asking concerned questions.

Quietly, so I the humans around me wouldn't hear, I growled out my answer. "There's a man in the parking lot. He's going to kidnap Bella and steal the car."

Everyone relaxed slightly. _Edward_, Alice reminded me, _Bella's not human – I'm sure she'll be all right. _

"He has a gun, Alice," I snapped. "Do you know for sure that she's bulletproof?" There were no more questions after that.

I continued to monitor the man's thoughts as we went. He scanned the area for witnesses, then ran forward and pressed the barrel of his revolver to Bella's ribcage. "Get in the car," he growled.

Bella, ignoring both the gun and the man's order, and pivoted to face her assailant. Her expression threw him off guard for a moment – her brown eyes were blazing hot with fury, and there was no trace of fear in her face. "_Excuse me?_" she said, her voice dangerously low and absolutely livid. The man's heartbeat accelerated in fear. My family and I had reached the parking lot by then, but there were still too many people around for us to run at full speed.

Bella's attacker was starting to panic – he was afraid that someone would see him soon. So he raised his gun and pointed the barrel right between Bella's eyes. "_Get in the car!_" he hissed again.

We had passed all the people. We started to run, but just as Bella and her attacker came into our view, Bella took the situation into her own hands. Faster than her human assailant's eyes could see, she cocked her arm back and punched him in the throat.

The man dropped his gun in favor of grabbing his throat with both hands. His trachea severely bruised, the man's knees buckled and he started to fall. But the choking man didn't reach the ground – Bella took at step back and executed a perfect kick to under the man's chin, hard enough to knock him backwards. His jaws slammed together, and he blacked out as he started to fall again. This time, Bella let him, and he landed spread-eagled on his back on the pavement.

Coolly, not seeming bothered in the least, Bella picked up his gun and swiftly and expertly unloaded it with smooth, practiced movements, like she did it all the time. Then she pocketed the bullets and tossed the revolver to me. I caught it automatically, but didn't speak. No one spoke – we were all staring at Bella, who, without saying a word, returned to the trunk of the Volvo and continued to place bags in it as if nothing had happened. When she'd finished, she finally looked at us, her eyebrows raised in a silent inquiry, asking us what we were staring at.

Emmett was the first to respond. "So," he began, very impressed, "what are you, an assassin?"

And, for the first time, I heard Bella laugh. She tilted her head back and laughed freely, the sound shimmering bells in the air. When she stopped laughing, she replied with a smile, "Hardly." She gestured to the unconscious man on the pavement. "He's still alive, isn't he?" she pointed out. "What kind of assassin leaves an attacker alive?"

That broke the tension slightly. Emmett and Jasper chuckled. Alice, Esme, and Carlisle were still too relieved that Bella was alive to find anything funny, but they were no longer stunned. Rosalie was trying very hard not to remember her own human life, which had ended in a situation much like this one. And Emmett wasn't about to let the topic go. "So what are you?" he demanded.

Bella's face tightened a little. She moved past us without answering and knelt by the man she'd knocked out. Briskly, she started to check him over, looking for any serious injuries. Carlisle, his doctor tendencies springing to life, joined her. After a quick examination, they both got up. "Nothing life threatening," Carlisle reported. Bella nodded in agreement.

Emmett was still looking at Bella, still waiting for her answer. She sighed, and looked away. Her eyes distant, she answered quietly. "I was a soldier." There was a slight emphasis on the past tense. Bella said nothing else after that, just unlocked the car and got in. We all did the same – it was obvious that our shopping trip had come to a close.

The drive back home was quiet. Jasper was mulling over some possible backgrounds for Bella – none that he could think of quite fit. Alice was worrying about why she hadn't seen Bella being attacked. Esme, afraid that Bella was more shaken up that she appeared, was so filled with horror and sympathy for Bella that as soon as we pulled into our driveway and got out of the car, she pulled Bella into a tight hug. Apparently, Bella was not used to hugs. Her eyes widened, and she stood rigidly and awkwardly while Esme threw her arms around her. After a second of shock, she raised her hands as though she was going to either hug Esme back or push her away, but her hands fluttered hesitantly, uncertainly, at her sides, and she ended up not doing anything at all.

Esme pulled back but kept her hands on Bella's shoulders. "I'm so sorry that happened to you," she said fervently.

Bella was definitely out of her comfort zone now. "Don't be," she muttered, "I can take care of myself."

"But he had a gun!" Esme protested.

"Yes," Bella responded slowly, looking at Esme strangely, "I know he had a gun – which wouldn't have hurt me, even he'd had a chance to pull the trigger."

Esme blinked. _So that's why she seems so calm_, she thought to herself. _She was never in any danger_. "Well," she said, letting go of Bella, "I'm still sorry it happened. Now why don't we go inside?"

Bella, though she was still obviously..... well, weirded out by Esme's concern, nodded and started up the steps, but paused when Emmett spoke. "You all go ahead – Jasper and I never finished the match we started before Bella here showed up," he said, beckoning Jasper out to the middle of the front yard.

Jasper sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair in frustration. "I don't suppose there's any use in trying to get you to let it go – even though we all know I'm going to win, just like I do every time."

Emmett scowled as he and Jasper faced off. "Don't be so cocky," he warned. Then, without taking his eyes off Jasper, asked, "Bella? You going to stay and watch the show?"

Bella laughed once and sat down on the front steps, resting her chin on her hand. "Sure," she responded. "But I already know how it'll turn out – Jasper's going to win."

Emmett straightened abruptly from the crouch he'd been in. "What?" he cried. "Come on – _somebody_ give me some credit!"

Bella shrugged. "He's a faster, smarter fighter," she explained.

Emmett crossed his arms over his chest, accenting the strength of his arms. "Jasper is not smarter than me," he argued.

"Did I say that?" Bella inquired. "I _said_ that he's a smart fighter."

"And I'm not?" Emmett challenged, his ego bruised.

Bella met his eyes, unworried. "Frankly, no," she responded calmly.

Jasper was successfully trying not to laugh as Bella continued to stun Emmett with her candid answers, but his eyes were slightly crinkled at the corners, showing his mirth. Carlisle, Esme, and Alice were likewise entertained – even Rosalie, despite herself, was a little amused.

Emmett launched himself at Jasper, determined to prove Bella wrong. His anger, however, made him even less careful about the attack that usual, so it was very easy for Jasper to sidestep him and pounce on his back, placing his teeth at Emmett's neck.

Emmett cursed furiously and stormed into the woods across the river next to our home to fume and sulk. Jasper walked away from him and joined Alice where she stood by the front door, taking her hand before they went inside. Carlisle and Esme followed, Esme wrapping her arm around my father's waist. Rosalie, too, went upstairs to finish the design of a dress she'd been working on, knowing that Emmett would not welcome her presence at the moment. And I decided to play my piano.

I sat down on the bench and ran my fingers across my most treasured possession. It had been too long since I'd played – so long I almost felt ashamed. I played a few scales first, to check the intonation and smiled slightly – it was still perfectly tuned. Then I turned my fingers to the keys and started to play Esme's favorite composition of mine. Her mental tone became appreciative and happier as she listened to me play from upstairs.

Alice and Jasper were talking about old memories – the days just after Alice had found Jasper in Philadelphia. Rosalie was absorbed in her task. The overall tone of my family that evening was very peaceful and happy. I loved it when it was like that – it made me so much more aware of how lucky I was to have a family like I did.

Emmett was the only dark spot in the otherwise bright atmosphere. I could still hear his thoughts from where he sat in a tree about three miles away, going over all the fights he'd ever had with Jasper, trying his hardest to figure out what he could do differently to win. He thought he was alone with his thoughts..... until Bella materialized beside him. "Jeez!" he gasped, jumping about a foot in the air, then glaring at Bella when he sat back down on the tree branch. _Where'd she_ come _from?!_ he thought. "Can't you make some freaking _noise _whenever you show up? You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Bella smiled faintly at Emmett from where she crouched casually on a branch beside Emmett's. "Sorry – I didn't mean to startle you. In answer to your question, I suppose I _could_ make some noise, but it goes against everything I've been taught since birth, so I probably won't."

Emmett's lips twitched. _She's sort of funny – in a weird, unintentional way_."That was kind of a rhetorical question, but okay."

Bella frowned slightly. "Oh."

Emmett sighed. _Better cut to the chase. _"What did you want, anyway? Did you come to tell me how bad I did?"

Bella shook her head, a glint of humor deep in her brown eyes. "No. I think you already know how badly you fought – why else would you be out here?" Emmett scowled – _Rub it in, why don't you?_ he muttered silently – and started to make a scathing reply, but Bella held her up hand palm-forward, gesturing for Emmett to wait before he said anything. "I came," Bella continued, "to offer my assistance."

Emmett guffawed. _Yeah, right. _"Your _assistance?_ How _exactly_ could you _assist_ me?"

Bella paid no attention to his sarcastic doubt. "I told you that I was a soldier – I was very well trained. If you'd like, I could teach you a few things."

Emmett stared at her incredulously. _Good grief! I'm not so bad that I'd let a _girl_ teach me!_ My lips twitched when I heard that – how Emmett could still be blind to the fact that Bella was not an average girl, I had no idea. "Are you serious?" he demanded. "What could you possibly have to teach me? This is ridiculous." _I'm _not_ letting her walk all over me_, he thought firmly.

He started to jump from the tree, but Bella's cool, confident voice from behind him made him stop. "Give me three weeks, and you'll be able to beat Jasper."

Emmett turned slowly and looked into Bella's eyes. There was no trace of doubt or joking in them. She was serious. She really thought that she could help him beat Jasper. _Hmmm_..... Emmett turned it over in his mind. He was still doubtful of Bella's ability, but she _looked_ like she knew what she was talking about. _Oh, what the heck?_ Emmett finally conceded. _It's not like she'll make me any worse_. "Fine," he said. "Three weeks."

Bella smiled widely. She stood gracefully and leaped from the branch she'd been on, landing silently on the ground. "Don't tell anyone about this – it would be better if we didn't have an audience," she called up to Emmett. "Except – please tell Rosalie. I promised her that I'd leave as soon as she thought I was a threat, and, oddly enough, I like it here. I'd rather not leave right away. I don't want her finding out later and getting angry."

Emmett couldn't help laughing at that. _Well_, he thought, _this should be interesting, if nothing else_.

I smiled as I continued to play my piano. Quickly, I scanned the thoughts of the rest of my family – they had heard nothing of Bella and Emmett's conversation. My smile widened – I agreed with my brother. This should be interesting indeed.


	5. Lessons

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

Even after I'd finished talking to Emmett, I didn't go back to the Cullens' house. I followed the river near the house, heading east. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to think. After I'd gone far enough that I was sure the Cullens couldn't hear me, I stretched, knitting my fingers and raising my arms high above my head. Then I mentally reached for my Cat shape, reveling in the thrill that came from feeling myself become something else. A quick flash of heat, a fleeting rush of coolness, and I was the horse-sized panther that was my second form. I stretched again, stretching my front paws out in front of me and arching my back – like a cat in the sun – sighing as I felt my muscles working smoothly with each other. I straightened and shook myself lightly, kneading the ground with my claws. Then, with a rush of excitement, I sprang forward and began to run.

Nothing else in the world quite compares to running as a Cat. I threw my front paws forward, catching hold of the ground, and dug my claws into it for more traction if I wanted an extra burst of speed, and my hind legs propelled me forward with a speed that can't be matched by anyone except another Cat. Wind blew through my fur, filled my nose with the scents of the forest. I paced myself to my breathing, feeling the push and pull of my muscles beneath my skin, working like a well oiled machine. The darkness of night didn't bother me – I practically flew through the trees, my paws barely making a sound on the underbrush. I felt completely weightless, as though I wasn't tied down to the earth in any way, and could fly to the moon if I wanted. My heart soared. _This_ was what freedom felt like. This was perfection.

But all good things must come to an end, and I couldn't run forever – even though I almost wanted to. So I slowed, letting my thoughts catch back up with me. I slowed again, until I was barely jogging, then stopped altogether. I sat down by the river I'd been following with a slight huff. I stayed in my Cat form – these ears were so sensitive. I could hear every rustle of leaves, every animal, every bird call, every rain drop in the distance – it wasn't raining here anymore. The melody of sounds was calming, like a lullaby. I sat there, just listening, for a while, trying to draw the timeless peace of the forest into myself, and failing miserably. Then I gave up, and let the troubled thoughts that hovered on the edges of my consciousness come forward.

What was I going to do now? I'd lost Sarah's murderers – what else did I have left besides revenge? A crushing emptiness started to smother me. There was nothing left. Nothing. I'd lost it all. That emptiness and pain rose higher, stretching before and around me like an endless desert – dry, and dead, filled with black sand that tried to swallow me up, and slippery, black dunes that I couldn't climb. Would I be trapped there, the one point of life in that desert, forever? I couldn't bear the thought of facing that. I pushed the thought away. There was something. There had to be. I would find it.

I could go to Russia, maybe, and stay with Ana and her pride. Ana was a friend – one of few. I'd met her when I'd been traveling the world last year, a few months before I'd met Darren, and I'd been visiting her when Darren and his parents had been killed – I cut the thought off there, not letting myself remember when I'd come back from visiting Ana and had smelled the stench of death. I couldn't let myself remember seeing Darren's broken body lying there in the clearing where we and his parents had been staying. I didn't want to remember how I'd screamed and run to him, how I'd held his cold, stiff body and rocked him, crying and begging him to come back. Didn't want to remember burying him and his parents and then trying to hunt down their killer – only to find that whoever it was had retreated to the ocean, and knowing that I'd never be able to find him or her. I didn't want to remember – and remembering was something I wouldn't be able to avoid if I went to Russia. So that option was out.

There was Marisol's pride in South America. She was another friend – she would be glad to see me. But she was so perceptive, even more so than usual for a Cat, which was saying something. She would know how much pain I was in. And I didn't want _anyone_ to know that.

So I supposed that I was going to stay here with the Cullens for a little while longer. I would have something to do. It would be difficult to train Emmett properly – he'd been fighting his way for who knows how long, and it had become a habit. I wondered why I'd even offered to help him anyway. Maybe it was nostalgia – I remembered when Sarah had first started her training at age five, and had begged me to help her so she could be as good as me. I remembered her big, blue eyes looking up at me pleadingly.

Pain lashed through my chest, making me gasp and shut the memory down as quickly as I could. I couldn't think about Sarah – not if I wanted to be able to function. I took a shaky breath, and let it out slowly.

Staying with the Cullens might mot be so bad. They – with the exception of Rosalie – were kind. They gave me my space. They didn't prod or pry. Esme was more affectionate toward me, a total stranger, than most of the people I'd know my whole life were. Carlisle was obviously just..... _good_. Emmett was funny and easy going. Jasper was a little cool, but Alice balanced him out perfectly with her freely given friendship. And Edward..... Edward was a mystery. Polite to be sure – he had complimented me earlier before we'd gone shopping. I'd seen true warmth in his eyes when he'd spoken to me. I knew from the way he acted around his family that he loved them very much. He was definitely beautiful.

Or maybe it was just my _reaction_ to him that made me confused. The other Cullens definitely didn't make me edgy – nervous and excited – like Edward did. My stomach didn't flip when anyone besides Edward smiled at me. It made me feel nervous.

And so incredibly guilty. The last person who had made me nervous like this had been Darren, who had died about eight months ago. I felt like I was betraying him by being drawn to Edward. Determination filled me – I would not let myself betray Darren. I would not let myself be attracted to Edward Cullen. I wouldn't.

My resolve strengthened, I looked up at the sky, disappointed that the clouds prevented me from seeing the stars. I had been out here maybe thirty minutes, I guessed. It was probably about ten o'clock at night. I needed to head back to the Cullens' house before they came looking for me and found a gigantic Cat. _That_ would be fun to explain – and would cost all of us our lives, as it's illegal for a Cat to tell anyone that we exist.

I got to my feet, shifting back into the In Between form I'd been wearing – the form that let me keep my sharp senses and some of a Cat form's speed, but gave me a body that looked human – and started to run back to the Cullens' house, trying not to notice how much slower this form was. As I got closer to the big, white house, I started to hear something. I cocked my head slightly as I ran on and the sounds became clearer. High, sweet, pure notes, woven into a silvery, gossamer melody that sounded like..... like starlight translated into sound. Someone was playing the piano.

Edward's Point of View

After Emmett came back to the house, I continued playing, expecting Bella to come back shortly after Emmett. But she didn't. We all waited for a few minutes, but she didn't come. I didn't think she'd left – not after she's told Emmett that she would help him beat Jasper. She was a woman of her word.

Esme started to worry after ten minutes. "Should we go look for her?" she asked in her musical, motherly voice.

Carlisle shook his head immediately. "If she hasn't come back, I'm sure it's because she would like to be alone for a while – I know she has much to think about. Let her be. She'll come back when she's ready."

I agreed. Bella had seemed so haunted when Esme had first invited her to stay with us. She no doubt needed to settle a few things in her mind. Besides, after her exhibition of fighting skill in the mall parking lot, I didn't think that anyone could have taken her by force – she must have been staying away by choice.

We all started different activities. Esme went upstairs to study some blueprints she'd acquired earlier that week. Carlisle started to read a book about diseases caused by mutations in mitochondrial DNA. Emmett and Jasper decided to play a game of chess. Alice and Rosalie sat on the stairs and bent their heads over a book filled with vintage designs. And I played my piano.

I went through a few pieces written by humans – Debussy, in particular – before I moved on to my own music. I played pieces written in a broad range of emotion – playfulness, impatience, contentedness. And then, a few minutes after I started to play the melody I'd dedicated to Esme, Carlisle, and the journey their love had taken, Bella – with her usual lack of noise accompanying her return – walked through the front door, giving us all a bit of a start.

All of our heads snapped up, and my fingers stilled over the piano keys. Bella fidgeted uncomfortably just inside the door for a second, then looked at me. Her eyes were not guarded. There was open appreciation and wonder in them. She took my breath away momentarily. "Please," she murmured, "don't stop. It's beautiful."

I almost thought that I would do anything to keep Bella looking at me like that. Immediately, I resumed the song as if the short pause had been planned, keeping one eye on Bella's face. As I played, Bella ghosted silently over beside me, standing next to the bench I was sitting on, her eyes fixed on my hands as they wandered across the keys. Her deep brown eyes shone as she listened. She kept her eyes on my hands, like she was memorizing the notes I played. The melody grew more complex – a small crease formed between her eyebrows as she focused more intently. Her lips parted ever so slightly, and her slender fingers started to move with the tune.

The song ended – trailing off slowly, as if it didn't quite end there. I'd written it like that to show continuation – Carlisle and Esme's story was far from over. Bella looked up slowly into my eyes and nodded, a wide smile spreading across her face. "Beautiful," she whispered. "Did you write it?"

I had to blink, break eye contact with her, before I was able to answer. "Yes."

Bella laughed quietly. "Impressive."

"Do you like music?" Alice asked from the staircase.

Bella seemed to warm to the topic easily, which was unusual – usually she clammed up when we asked questions. "Yes, I do," she replied. "Music is very important to my family."

I smiled, glad to learn another thing about this enigmatic girl. "Do you play piano?" I asked. If she did, I would ask her to play. I would insist on it.

Bella cast a wistful glance at my piano and sighed. "No – I told you my family was always on the move. Bringing a piano along with us would have been too impractical. But" she added, her face brightening, "I learned to play several smaller instruments that we could carry with us, though; violin, several woodwinds – a friend in South America taught me how to play guitar. And my family is very diverse when it comes to influences – I learned music from all over the world: Ireland, Russia, the rest of Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East....."

It was strange, in a good way – how open Bella was when the topic was music. I liked it. I wished she was _always_ this open. Bella turned to look at me, hope in her eyes. "Do you play any jazz?" she asked.

I grinned, and answered her by playing a swing piece. Alice – who absolutely loves swing dancing – trilled a laugh and hopped to her feet. She darted over to where Emmett and Jasper were playing chess and pulled her husband to his feet. "Come on, Jazz," she urged, using her nickname for Jasper. "Dance with me!" Jasper chuckled indulgently and complied, letting Alice drag him to the middle of the family room. They danced the Jitterbug, and the rest of us – Bella included – watched with amused eyes. Rosalie and Emmett, not to be outdone, joined them, and then Carlisle and Esme did as well. After a few minutes, Alice did something that surprised us all – she left Jasper and grabbed Bella's hand, pulling her onto our makeshift dance floor. "Don't just sit there!" she scolded. "Dance! I'll teach you the steps."

Bella's eyes widened and she stiffened, obviously wanting to decline. Alice ignored that and proceeded to start dancing with Bella, telling her what to do as they went. But, though Bella's movements were rigid and tense, she seemed to start the next move before Alice told her what to do. Pleased surprise filled me – Bella already knew how to dance. It was just her reluctance that made her look so awkward. But eventually, she started to loosen up. Her eyes lost some of their tightness. And then she was dancing. _Really_ dancing, without any inhibitions. Alice not longer bothered telling her the steps – it was obvious now that Bella already knew them.

And, my God, she could dance. She was magnificent – even more graceful than Alice. And she danced with feeling – like the dance meant something to her, and wasn't just a bunch of movements in time with music. She breathed life into the dance, moved with so much expression – it was like she was telling a story, not just dancing. Her musical laugh floated through the air, and twined with Alice's silvery, tinkling one. Only a small fraction of my mind was focused on playing the piano. The rest was fixated on Bella.

But the song had to end. And, when it did, Bella, who had been smiling and laughing like she was one of the family, cleared her throat in embarrassment and stepped quickly away from Alice, Rosalie, Emmett, Esme, and Carlisle to stand against the wall, her expression as unreadable as usual.

Disappointment made me sigh to myself. Alice shared my feelings. _Come on, Bella_, she thought, _don't shut us out like that_.

_There's no reason to be embarrassed about letting your guard down_, Esme murmured silently.

I didn't know what was going through Bella's head – to my never-ending frustration. I couldn't imagine what made her so remote. But I wished I knew what made her so reclusive. What about her life made her want to keep everyone out? Had something happened? Had someone hurt her? Or was the family she'd mentioned to blame? She'd admitted that her own mother would have no qualms about killing her. Perhaps they had never encouraged intimacy, and it was completely foreign to her.

Either way, the jovial mood was gone. Carlisle and Esme went upstairs. Alice went to her room and Jasper decided to go to the basement. Emmett and Rosalie went hunting.

Which left me and Bella alone. We stared silently at each other from across the room while I tried to think of something to say. _You dance beautifully. Where were you earlier? Why won't you let us in? _But nothing came out of my mouth.

Bella ended up being the one who broke the silence. "Thank you for playing for me," she said quietly, her brown eyes distant. And then, without another word and without really looking me in the eye, she went upstairs. Faintly, I heard the door to the guest room where Bella was staying close.

I resisted the urge to sigh sharply in frustration. Frustration at Bella partly – but mostly at myself. I'd only known Bella for one day! It was utterly ridiculous for me to be this – this – _attached_ to her! I ran upstairs to my room and played a Chopin CD, trying to calm myself down so I could think. I breathed deeply until my mind was relatively ordered.

Bella. She was so closed, except for brief flashes of herself that she seemed to regret showing us later. She seemed passionate. Fierce. Pained. Jasper was always feeling so many complicated, difficult emotions coming from her. And yet, despite how aged and worn she seemed sometimes, there was a childlike side to her, a side that was baffled by a simple act of kindness, could dance with more feeling than most, a side of her that got stars in her eyes when she heard beautiful music. She was contrast. She was a mystery. And now I was fascinated by that mystery. Engrossed by it. I knew so little, and I wanted to learn more.

So what did that _mean_? Where did that _come_ from? I had no idea. But, as long as I was feeling what I was feeling, I figured that I may as well just see where these feelings took me.

As soon as I had resolved that within myself, I heard a soft noise – a door swing slowly on its hinges. I sat up alertly. I heard nothing else, but, with Bella now in the house, that didn't mean much – Bella could easily move without us hearing. So I got up and crept as quietly as I could down the stairs.

Bella was standing by my piano, frowning intently at the keys. Her right hand hovered over the keys, never actually touching them, but trying to silently recreate the song I'd written for Esme and Carlisle. She was so focused, she didn't see me. Until, that is, I spoke. "Would you like me to teach you how to play?"

She was _definitely_ not used to being sneaked up upon. She jumped and snatched her hand away from the keys, holding it behind her back. She looked at me, a horrified apology written all over her face. "I'm sorry," she gasped. "I didn't mean to – I wasn't going to....." she trailed off and stood tense and grim, obviously waiting for me to be angry with her.

I wasn't. "Don't be sorry," I told her, walking to her side. Since she didn't seem to have heard me the first time, I repeated, "Would you like me to teach you how to play?"

Bella blinked, confused for a moment, then a smile started to spread across her face. She tried to repress it, but couldn't. "Yes," she answered. "I would like that very much." She hesitated slightly, then asked, "Could we start now?"

I laughed, and motioned for her to sit on the bench. As I began to tell her which keys were which notes, I thought about all the learning everyone was going to be doing. Emmett was learning to fight. Bella was learning to play the piano.

And I was – hopefully – going to learn about Bella.


	6. Sensei and Grasshopper

Disclaimer: You know the drill – I don't own twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Emmett's Point of View

Rosie and I didn't come back to the house until morning. And, since it was Monday, we had to go to school. Ugh. It was so boring! Honestly, you can only relearn Calculus so many times before it starts to make you twitchy. And P.E.! Don't even get me started on P.E. Having to run, throw, and do whatever else the coach told you to do at human speed and strength? It was torture. A freaking _nightmare_. But it was necessary to blend in. And the _teachers_, looking at me with all this resentment because I _just so happened_ to be smarter than them – something that was, in my personal opinion, not that hard to achieve. Not to mention having to actuallydowhat they told me to do. That chafed my pride, and I was always having to repress my adorable little desire to tell them to stick it where the sun don't shine. Oh, the havoc I could wreak in that group of small brick buildings that served as a school! But I had to _blend in_. We all did – and that meant going to school, acting human in P.E., and asking 'How high?' when the teachers said jump – no matter how much I wanted to sneak there in the middle of the night and paint the walls some lovely, eye-catching color that the school board would definitely _not_ approve of. And maybe do something funny with the flag poles and lockers while I was at it.....

Well, better get it over with. Rosalie and I changed and went down stairs to wait for Alice, Jasper, and Edward. Bella was downstairs, curled up on one of the couches, staring blankly out the glass wall. She turned to look at us when we came down, took in our fresh clothes, and cocked her head in a silent question. I sighed heavily. "School," I explained, saying the word like an expletive.

Bella frowned slightly. "You go to school?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Edward answered from behind me – he'd just come downstairs. "We act as young as we can – the younger we start out, the longer we can stay in a given place without rousing suspicion."

Bella nodded. "Of course." But she wrinkled her nose a little.

"What?" I asked.

Bella shook her head. "It's just..... _school_," she admitted, aghast. "Boring subject matter, annoying teachers, and hormonal teenagers. You have my sympathy."

"Oh, ha ha," I muttered. "So, what, you've never been to school before?"

"I was..... home schooled, I guess you could say," she replied, her gaze wandering to the glass wall again. "And my education was much different than those given in the public school system."

"What did you learn?" I asked. Obviously self-defense, but had she received any book learning at all?

Bella shrugged. "History, literature, mathematics. Tactics. Hand to hand combat. Languages and cultures. Weaponry. Things like that."

Things she would need to blend in anywhere. Things she would need as a fighter. Dang. It was starting to look like Bella had been trained as a warrior from birth, or something. I looked at the scars on her arms from the corner of my eye – Jasper had scars like that, just a lot more of them. Those were fighting scars. And Bella had said that she'd been a soldier..... hmmm. Maybe her family _had_ raised and trained her to fight – like some old warrior tribe portrayed in a movie. If that was the case, then maybe I'd sold her short earlier – maybe she really _could_ teach me a thing or two about fighting.

At any rate, it was time to leave for school. Hip, hip, hooray. Rose, Jasper, and I all squeezed into the back seat of Edward's Volvo. To my great frustration, Alice got to sit in the front passenger's seat. That was unfair – she would have taken up a lot less room in the back that I did. Why couldn't I get shotgun once and a while? I glared at the back of Edward's head._ How _dare_ you discriminate against the non-psychics! _I thought to him, and saw his lips twitch in the rear view mirror.

"It's not my fault she got here first," he answered mildly. "Maybe you should mover faster."

Alice laughed her bright laugh, and turned to look at me over her headrest. "Don't bother," she told me impishly. "I'll see you trying, and I'll _still_ beat you here."

"Unfair," I announced. Then I sighed. "But true." Alice grinned and started to say something, but I cut her off. "Shut up, pixie," I muttered, but teasingly, not angrily, which is why Jasper didn't give me his trademark eye-narrowed, back-stiffened, teeth-bared, don't-mess-with-my-woman glare. I swear, sometimes he's _too_ protective.

But, anyway, we arrived at school then, and it was off to class. I didn't really listen – the teachers never called on me, and as for the lectures, I'd heard it all and then some. _Animal Farm_, Newton's laws, and P.E. all blurred into a boring swirl in my mind. Then it was lunch time, which was a reprieve from the monotony because I got to talk to my family. And, after that, it was time for art and _la clase de espanol_. Then, thank God, the day was over. I walked back to Edward's Volvo, trying not to be impatient at my slow pace, and met my family there. Jasper and Alice were already in the car, and Edward was standing outside the driver's side door, waiting for me and Rose – Edward hadn't quite shaken some habits he'd picked up in the early 1900's, including letting everyone else enter before he got in.

Rose was waiting for me, too. "Hey, babe," she said sympathetically. She knew how much school irritated me. She wrapped her arms around my waist and kissed me passionately enough to turn a couple of the humans' heads. "So," she asked after she'd pulled away, "how was your day?"

I grinned and pulled her closer, feeling the contentment and love that Rosalie always made me feel. "Not so great," I replied, then kissed my beautiful wife. "But," I added jokingly, my lips brushing against hers, "it's looking up."

"Come on, lovebirds," Edward called, not sounding impatient at all – just humored. "You're attracting attention – again."

I wrapped an arm around Rosalie's waist and walked her to the door of Edward's car. "Oh, they're just jealous," I told him as I opened the car door for Rose.

Edward grimaced and cut an annoyed glance at Eric Yorkie, a junior with black hair and bad skin, who was walking by and studiously not looking our way. "Yes," he muttered, "they are. You have no idea."

My smile hardened, turned dangerous. "Well, I can't say that I blame them – as long as they don't act on it." If they did, I'd have to hurt somebody. Namely the human who was stupid enough to make a move on my Rose.

Edward chuckled once. "Don't worry – even the boys who think that Rosalie's the most beautiful thing on earth would never try anything. She scares them."

"Good," Rose muttered from inside the car. "I _do not_ want to deal with a doting human, and resulting the clean-up that Emmett would make necessary."

I grinned and crammed myself into the small – to me, at least – car next to Rose. "You know you love me, clean-ups and all," I teased. Rose laughed and rolled her eyes, not bothering to answer.

Edward started the car and drove home at our usual breakneck speed. When we got home, I plopped onto one of the couches in the family room and started my homework. Ugh, homework. I'm older than every teacher in that school, for crying out loud, and I had to do _homework!_ But it wasn't too bad – since I had the subjects memorized, I was done in about two seconds. Bella suddenly walked around the back of the couch and stood right in front of me, making me jump. I hadn't heard her coming again. "Didn't we talk about making noise when you walk?" I asked reprovingly.

Bella nodded, a humorous twinkle deep in her brown eyes. "Yes, we did," she answered. And," she added, "if I remember correctly, I said that I would continue to walk as I was taught to walk – soundlessly."

I sighed – she was right – and changed the subject. "So, what'd you do today since you decided to pass on going to high school?"

She folded herself gracefully onto the couch next to me. "I received Carlisle's permission to read the books he has in his office."

I frowned. I'd seen those books before. They all had titles a mile long, and were filled with indecipherable terms and jargon. "But those are all medical books," I said. Did Bella have an interest in medicine?

Bella smiled and nodded. "I know. Already I have learned a great deal." Her eyes flickered toward the stairs. "And, speaking of learning," she breathed, her voice pitched so it wouldn't carry, "follow me."

And she slipped silently out the front door. I went after her with a thrill of excitement – Bella was going to show me a few ways to get the better of Jasper. When I got outside, she had already disappeared into the trees, but there was a clear scent trail for me to follow. I ran for maybe about five minutes, a _long_ way when you factor in vampire speed – way across the Canadian border. Bella was taking no chances of being interrupted. When I caught up to her, she was standing in the middle of a clearing about the size of a human baseball diamond. She beckoned for me to join her in the middle of the clearing. "I scoped out some possible spots earlier today," she said. "This is the best I could find. I checked for hiking trails, and none run this deep into the mountains. We shouldn't be found here unless someone comes looking for us and follows our scents in." Bella glanced at me warily. "You _did_ tell Rosalie about these lessons, didn't you?"

I made a face. "Yeah, I told her while we were hunting last night." And boy, oh, boy, had she been mad. It had taken two hours to calm her down, then an extra thirty minutes to convince her to let Bella teach me.

Bella nodded, a sympathetic look in her eyes. Then she was all business. "All right," she began briskly. "I've seen you fight on two occasions, so I know what I'm working with. We can cut straight to the heart of the matter." She looked me in the eyes. "You are too obvious and straightforward about the attack. Jasper has been fighting for years, I'd guess, and probably in the South – where his opponents would have been mainly newborn vampires who fight just like you do. He's had a lot of practice, and a lot of experience." She started to circle me. "What we need to do is break your habits. You need to learn to rely on skill and speed, not just strength. You need to learn how to move – and _keep_ moving."

She faced me, and slid into a fighting crouch. I copied her. "So, what, you're just going to batter me until I get it right?" I asked. I didn't think I liked her style of teaching.

The ghost of a smile hovered on Bella's mouth. "No, we're going to do some exercises first. We're not sparring – you're going to try to do what I tell you." Before I could express my irritation on her choice of words –_ try?_ – she grinned fiercely. "Don't let me touch you!" she ordered. Then she sprang into action.

I dodged her first blow to my head by ducking, but there was a second blow to my chest coming before even a one hundredth of a second had passed. I leaned back, letting it whistle harmlessly past me. But Bella started to close in, and her hands moved like lightning. I had to move back and dodge, dip, and swerve constantly to avoid getting walloped. The whole time, she gave me instructions, telling me how to duck and still be ready to fend off another blow, things like that. This wasn't what I was used to – I was more of a head-on fighter, not a fast, hard-to-catch one. I was an _offensive_ fighter. I didn't _do_ defense! But I guess that was the point of the drill. To make something unnatural become natural to me.

And I started to get the hang of the never-ending movement. She was coming on so fast I _had_ to watch her,_ had_ to try to interpret her movements, _had_ to figure out where she was going to strike next – all the things I'd never tried before. It started to get easier – which was when she _really _started bringing the heat. Before, she'd just been using her hands. Now her feet became a part of the onslaught. Bella fought like she belonged in a dojo somewhere, or in a martial arts movie. In fact, the only place I'd ever seen some of the kicks she executed _was_ in martial arts movies. She struck low, at my feet and legs with sweeping kicks that made me jump, and in the next millisecond, while I was still in the air, she would jump up and aim dangerous-looking spinning kicks at my head. Ducking in mid-air is _not easy!_ And, in between kicks, she still continued to punch and chop at whatever part of me she could reach.

After she started doing that, I only lasted for about three seconds. I spun away from one roundhouse kick, and another met my ribcage, knocking the breath from my rock-hard body. Good thing I didn't need to breathe – that kick had hurt enough on its own without me gasping for breath.

Bella was nodding, totally calm – like she hadn't just embodied Jackie Chan. "Very good," she complimented. "Better than I expected, and, with practice, you'll be even better."

I gingerly pulled a breath into my lungs. "Good," I muttered, "Cause if you're going to kick me that hard every time I mess up, I might just quit."

Bella chuckled. "Think of it as negative reenforcement." She started to walk back to the middle of the clearing. "However, being able to evade an attack is only half of the problem. You also need to be the one who must be evaded." She beckoned for me to stand in front of her. Barely suppressing a groan, I obeyed. She smiled comfortingly at me. "Don't worry – if you do this right, I won't kick you. You're going to try to touch me now." Yes. Finally something I felt like I could do – attack. But..... well, I didn't want to hit a _girl!_ Bella read the discomfort on my face. "What?" she demanded.

I coughed slightly. "it's just..... well, you're a girl," I explained, feeling like a complete chauvinist.

Bella's eyebrows rose. "Ignore that. Here, I'm not Bella. I'm not a girl. Here, I am a teacher, and an opponent. And if I'm to teach you _properly_, I need you to fight me without reservations – as though I were a man. Don't worry about hurting me. You probably won't be able to, anyway." Well, she'd settled that. We faced off. "Oh, and by the way," she added. "That whole 'I'm an opponent not a friend thing' goes both ways. _Do not_ attack me head on, or I will respond just like an actual opponent would." She and I crouched low. "Begin," Bella instructed.

I did. I tried to come at her from the sides, from behind – no luck. She was like smoke – I could reach out, but she wouldn't be there anymore. Once – _only_ once – I forgot myself and launched myself straight at her. She almost tore my arm off, and the only reason I avoided that was because I remembered a quick maneuver Bella had taught me earlier, and twisted away from her at the last second. I gaped at her. "What the heck?!" I burst out. "You tried to _tear my arm off!_"

Bella sighed. "I told you not to attack head on," she reminded me.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't think you'd _tear my arm off!_" I said incredulously.

Bella grinned. "But I bet you won't attack from the front again, will you?"

We began again, and I took her warning a whole lot more seriously. Bella coached me as I tried to get a hold of her, telling me how I could improve what I did. And I started to see some improvement, though I never touched Bella – she was just too fast.

After a few more minutes of that, Bella called a stop. She was smiling. "Again, very well done," she congratulated. "When you get a little better, we'll combine the two drills and move onto actual sparring. And I think you might be able to beat Jasper in less time than three weeks." With that last comment, she turned and vanished into the trees to the south, heading back to Washington.

I stared after her for a few seconds. Oh, I had no doubt now that Bella had a lot to teach me. She was a good teacher, and I didn't think she would hurt me – too badly, at least. I chuckled to myself as I started to run home. _Emmett McCarty_, I thought jokingly to myself, _what have you gotten yourself into? _


	7. The Revelation

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. You all knows who does.

Edward's Point of View

Bella and Emmett had sneaked off for the fighting lesson a few minutes after we'd gotten home form school. They went far enough that I couldn't read Emmett's mind, so I listened in on Alice's thoughts to see if she'd had any visions about what Bella and Emmett would do, but she was still clueless about the training Bella was giving Emmett – she hadn't seen anything about it. That was strange. Apparently, Alice was unable to see not only Bella, but also the people with her. I sighed, disappointed, and wondered what else I could do. I'd read my teachers' minds and picked out our homework assignments, so I'd finished everything is class.

I decided to talk to Carlisle. I walked to his office, where I could hear his thoughts coming from, and paused outside the oak door. I didn't knock – Carlisle had heard me coming. _Come in, Edward_, he thought, pleased that I'd come to talk to him. We hadn't had much time alone in the past few weeks.

I opened the door and stepped inside Carlisle's office, and sat down in one of the leather chairs in front of his desk. "How was your day?" I asked. "Anything interesting?"

Carlisle smiled and shook his head. _Oh, Mr. Webber broke his arm when he fell off his roof while he was trying to fix a shingle. Nathan Marks has the flue. Other than that, it was a very slow day. I was able to come home early_.

I nodded, remembering that Bella had said that Carlisle had let her read some of his books. "I heard Bella say that she read a few of your books earlier," I noted, hoping that Carlisle would elaborate. Anything was a possible way to learn more about her.

Carlisle nodded, a slightly awed look in his eyes. _Yes – she walked past my office around one in the afternoon and stopped dead in the hall. Her eyes locked on my bookshelf, and I could see that she wanted to read them. There was this light in her eyes, a true hunger for knowledge – not unlike the light _you _had in your eyes for the first few years after I changed you. I offered to let her read my books, and right away she came in, picked one out, sat down in the chair you're sitting in, and started reading_.

Carlisle didn't say anything else, just showed me his memory of the rest of the afternoon until my siblings and I came home. Bella had curled up in this chair and read quickly, occasionally asking a quiet question, and listening intently when Carlisle answered. _"Do you have an interest in medicine?"_ Carlisle had asked. Bella had shaken her head. _"No, not really," she'd replied. "But I might develop one, and, even if I don't, I would like to learn as much as I can about whatever I can." _Her inquisitive spirit had endeared her to Carlisle. He liked her very much.

"How many books did she read?" I asked curiously.

Carlisle smiled. _About twenty. I think she could have read faster, but I myself have often read slower than usual when I want to throughly absorb something_. I nodded to myself, and added this new bit of information my store of knowledge about Bella – she loved to learn new things. Carlisle grinned suddenly.

"What?" I asked.

Carlisle's mind was filled with glad humor. _Am I mistaken to think that you like her?_ he asked.

The implication was clear in his mind – when he said like her, he meant romantically. "Yes," I answered automatically. Then I frowned, remembering all the complex things Bella made me feel. "I think." Carlisle's grin widened, became jubilant. In his opinion, I'd been alone far too long. He was absolutely thrilled that I'd found someone I was attracted to after all these years. "Don't get carried away," I warned quickly. "I don't know _what_ I'm feeling. Besides," I murmured, lowering my voice, my tone unintentionally sad, "she'll be leaving eventually, anyway."

Carlisle leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers, a secretive smile on his face. _Maybe she won't – if you ask her to stay_.

My jaw dropped. He couldn't be serious. What good would me asking her to stay possible do? She hardly seemed to favor me. "What?" I gasped.

_She was asking about you this afternoon, just like you're asking about her_, Carlisle replied mock-nonchalantly. _She asked me when you'd joined my family, where you had come from, why I'd changed you. I didn't tell her, of course_, he added hastily._ I told her that was your personal story, and that if she wanted to know, she should ask you. She tried to make her questions seem inconspicuous by asking questions about everyone else, but there was always this special sparkle in her eyes when she asked about you. So, who knows? Maybe she is attracted to you as you are attracted to her_.

I opened and closed my mouth, trying to figure out a good response to that, but I couldn't. As much as I wanted to believe that, I didn't dare hope. Besides, I was still trying to puzzle out my feelings toward her. I was in no shape to try to think about her feelings toward me – if there even _were_ feelings toward me. "I barely know her," I stuttered. I don't know if I was arguing with myself, or my father.

Carlisle raised one eyebrow. _Did I know Esme very well?_ he asked mildly. He knew he had me there. _Did Emmett know Rosalie? Did Jasper know Alice? It _is_ possible to look at someone and be immediately drawn to her. It is, in fact, incredibly _common_ amongst our kind. _I had seen Carlisle's first sight of Esme through Carlisle' eyes, had seen Rosalie through Emmett's dying, human ones, and had seen Jasper's memory of the first time he saw Alice. I knew that some people were just supposed to be together, and that sometimes they felt that pull when they looked at each other. But Bella and I, meant to be? That seemed impossible. I was attracted to her, but..... _soul mates?_ That seemed to be taking it a little far. My mind ran in endless, answerless circles.

I shook my head. "I can't think," I whispered.

Carlisle leaned forward and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. _I'll admit, your situation is different than the rest of ours were_, he conceded. _But think about it, son_.

Oh, I would. There would be no _avoiding_ it now that Carlisle had put the thought in my head. I chuckled weakly and rubbed my forehead. Then my head snapped up. Emmett was back within hearing range. _Well, I'll learn a lot, that's for sure_, he was thinking. _That is, _if_ I survive learning it. But it'll be worth it, though_, he remembered dreamily. _It'll be worth it to see the look on Jasper's face when I beat him_.

So the lesson was over. I watched Emmett run over everything Bella had taught him in his mind, my eyes widening when he remembered her speed and skill. She knew what she was doing. She could probably kill us all if she wanted to – but I was sure she didn't, so I wasn't worried.

_Edward? _Carlisle asked silently. _What is it?_

I grinned broadly and stood. Emmett would surprise everyone – maybe even Alice. "You'll see in a few weeks," I called over my shoulder as I ran down the hall. As much as I loved my father figure, I wanted to be alone for a while so I could think. I ran until I was deep in the forest, where there was no one around, and subsequently, no foreign thoughts pouring into my mind. It was very peaceful and quiet. It felt odd, having only one voice – _my_ voice – in my head. I felt almost normal. Or, as normal as a vampire _can_ feel. I sighed softly, and started trying to make sense of the jumbled emotions I was experiencing.

I was in the middle of not having much luck with my task, when I heard the whispery sounds borne on the wind.

Bella's Point of View

I made it back to the house before Emmett – he might have been strong, but he was much slower than me. I went straight to my room because I didn't know where else to go. But I was restless. I couldn't sit still. I kept fidgeting, and soon I started to pace. I shook myself slightly and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself like Brian had taught me. _Think of yourself as a pool of water_, he'd suggested. _The calmer you make that pool, the deeper you can see into it, but the more ripples there are, the harder it is to focus and see what needs to be seen._ So I sat very still, breathing deeply, until I could pinpoint the source of my restlessness. Now that I was remembering how I'd been taught the things I was teaching Emmett, I was remembering other things from my life with my pride. I was remembering my childhood of being hissed at by two of the three other children my age, of being rejected by my mother, and being scorned by most of the other adults in the pride. They were hard, cruel memories – the tears I'd shed as a three year old who didn't understand why everyone hated me were vivid in my memory – and I needed something to balance the bad things. _We lead bleak lives, Bella,_ my aunt Rachel – Brittany's mother – had told me once. _We need a little brightness to ease the burden. A dark life without any bright spots will drive anyone insane. _

What usually did that for me? That was an easy question to answer – music. But I didn't have any instruments available except the piano downstairs, and I didn't feel comfortable playing – though Edward had given me permission to play whenever I wanted – for all the Cullens to hear.

No, I didn't have any instruments small enough to take with me into the forest – but that didn't mean I couldn't _make_ one. Brian, along with being the fighting instructor of our pride, was also an accomplished woodworker. In what little spare time he had, he could be found whittling or carving. He had taught me his craft.

I stood and dug around in my pack until I found my dagger, my _tanto_, and tucked it into the waistband of my jeans, then I slipped from the house and ran east along the river until I found a rock to sit on, and found a good branch from a nearby tree. I cut the twigs off the branch and cut it to the appropriate length. Then I stripped the bark from the it and carefully hollowed it out. Next I bored holes down the length of the slender branch, making sure they were the correct size and the right length apart. Then I turned the newly made flute I'd just made over in my hands, looking for any flaws, and, when I found none, lifted it to my lips and blew softly. I tested each of the holes for sound quality, made one a little larger, then played an Irish jig that always lifted my spirits.

I felt a little better, but not much. I frowned slightly, wondering why the music hadn't helped me this time. And then I remembered another thing my aunt Rachel – who had loved music more than anyone else I knew – had told me. _When you play, play with emotion. I don't care which emotion you use, as long as there _is_ emotion. Music is a language spoken directly to the heart. It expresses; it gives release. Without feeling, music is just noise with a rhythm_. I'd just been playing by memory, without feeling the music.

So I took a deep breath, and felt. I looked into myself and saw what there was. And when I found the pain left behind by Sarah's recent death, I began to play again.

Edward's Point of View

I listened closer. It was music, I realized. A flute of some kind. Unconsciously, I got up and started to follow the sound. As it became clearer, I noticed the anguish this strange song held. It wandered through the air, as melancholy and disturbing as wind sighing through leaves. It was beautiful, in its terrible way. It rose, peaking with longing, and fell, crying in pain. I started to run – I needed to find whoever was playing this! But maybe, somewhere in my subconscious, I already knew, because when I peered through the trees ahead of me and saw Bella sitting on a boulder, eyes closed, face agonized, playing a flute, I wasn't surprised. She was so absorbed in the song she played that she didn't notice me. The song continued wistfully – like someone looking back on fond memories, and wishing they could go back. The last note didn't harmonize with the rest of the song – it was high and shrill, rising like a mournful wail, then cut off abruptly. But still, it fit perfectly – as though the song was too painful to continue playing.

I realized that I'd been holding my breath, and exhaled – which was a mistake. Bella whirled silently, sinking into a crouch. I backed up, holding my hands up in a calming gesture. Bella's eyes widened; she froze, and her face went paler than normal when she saw me. The hand that held the flute – which looked like she had whittled it herself – tightened until the flute broke into three pieces with a sharp crack. Bella didn't speak, but the look on her face said everything – she hadn't wanted anyone to hear that.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I was out thinking and I heard you playing – I didn't know." Bella still hadn't moved. I started to worry. "What was that?" I asked quietly.

Bella blinked and looked away from me. "It has no name," she answered, her voice harsh.

A theory started to form in my mind. "Who wrote it?" I asked. Bella didn't answer, which confirmed my suspicions – Bella had written it herself. Suddenly, I felt incredibly guilty. Bella had poured her heart into that song. Her emotions had been so clear. And there had been so much pain. "I'm sorry," I whispered again, meaning it more this time. Then, unable to help myself, I whispered, "What happened?"

Bella didn't answer for a long moment. I'd been convinced that she wasn't going to answer, and had turned to leave her alone, when her voice, barely audible even to my sensitive ears, came from behind me. "I lost someone," she breathed. I faced Bella again. She was sitting down on the boulder again, looking down at the river with her back to me.

Cautiously, I sat down beside her. My heart twisted when I saw the heartbreak in her eyes. "Who?" I asked gently.

She breathed out shakily. "Someone very precious to me," she replied, and stood and walked away. I let her leave – if she didn't want to tell me, then I wasn't going to push her. I would _never_ push her. I remembered the look on her face, and felt a fierce pain in my chest in response. She was so _broken!_ She'd hidden most of the pain she carried, but now I thought I could see the extent of it. At that moment, I was absolutely certain that I would have done anything to comfort her. Anything. Just to..... _help_ her.

Which is about when I realized that I was beginning to fall for this broken, beautiful girl named Bella.


	8. The Challenge

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

I couldn't believe that Edward had heard me playing that. I'd just improvised, playing what felt right, and I'd exposed _everything_ in that song. Everything. And he'd heard it. The look in his eyes, so horrified, so pained, so gentle and sympathetic..... it was almost too much to bear, knowing that he felt those things for me. It was my pain – not to be shared with anyone else.

So why did the sympathy in his eyes make me feel a little less alone? Why did telling Edward a small piece of my sorrow make me feel lighter? _Why did I trust him?_ What was I _doing?_ I'd promised myself that I wouldn't betray Darren! I'd _promised!_ But, in my memory, Darren's twinkling blue eyes didn't judge me. They _approved._ I shoved the picture in my mind away with a grimace. That _would_ have been like Darren – to approve of anything he thought would make me happy. But being close to Edward was out of the question. Even if Darren had been alive to tell me in person that it was okay with him, I wouldn't have listened to him – this time, he didn't know what he was talking about. This time, I knew better than he did. Feeling so drawn to someone I'd just met only eight months after Darren's death couldn't be right – no matter how right it seemed. I wouldn't be fickle. I wouldn't give in to my attraction to Edward..... I _couldn't_..... not matter how much I wanted to.

And a part of me wanted to. It frightened me how much a part of me wanted to tell Edward everything, to bare my soul to him, to let him know me. But it would hurt – all those memories I'd suppressed, all those hurts I'd held..... releasing them would be hell. And yet, even though I knew that, I also felt that Edward would help me deal with it. He would help me heal.

I growled fiercely and almost stopped to bash my head against a tree. _Control yourself!_ I ordered myself. I'd hardly _ever_ let my emotions rule me – I wouldn't be ruled by them now. Not in this. I locked away my feelings in a small iron box in the back of my mind, and determined that they would stay there. I would be strong – for Darren.

Darren. Blue-eyed, blond-haired, kind, funny Darren. I'd met him eleven months ago in Russia, two months after I'd left my pride to travel the world. We hadn't had the most auspicious of meetings – we'd almost tried to kill each other. I'd felt terrible about that later, but, then again, when one is face to face with a werewolf, one tends to overreact. Darren, his mother, Nadia, and his father, Michael, had been werewolves – _actual_ werewolves that were nocturnal, influenced by the phases of the moon, and created not only by genetics, but by biting, not like the Quileute shape shifters.

Nadia had been bitten first by accident in 1845, and Michael, who had been a National Geographic photographer, had run across Nadia while hiking through Siberia when the moon was full. It had always been surprising to me that Nadia hadn't killed him. But he'd been bitten, and Nadia hadn't been able to bring herself to leave him alone, and had taken care of him. She'd explained what he'd become, and eventually, by some twist of fate, they'd ended up falling in love. And then they'd had Darren, and passed the werewolf gene to him.

Anyway, Nadia had managed to keep Darren and me from tearing each other's throats out, and, though I was wary of them, I was soon won over by Nadia's sweet nature – which, to me, didn't coincide with what she was – and Michael's humor. Soon, I'd realized that Darren had inherited both. And shortly after I'd realized that, I fell in love with him. I stayed with them for three months, living with them in an In Between form most of the time, and, when the full moon made the urge to change into a wolf irresistible for them – like an acute pain – I'd stayed with them as a Cat since werewolves aren't dangerous to animals. I'd intended to stay with them forever – until they'd been killed. I'd come back to where we'd been staying and found their dead bodies. I'd buried them, and, after I'd failed to find their killer, I'd grieved bitterly for a week, then continued traveling, learning with a ferocity meant to keep me from remembering. I'd been on my way back to my pride after over a year – not even ten miles away from them – when Sarah had been killed.

I didn't let myself remember anymore. The point was, what had happened to Darren had caused me so much pain – I could only _imagine_ what would happen to me if I opened myself to what I was feeling for Edward, which was so much stronger than what I'd felt for Darren, and something happened to him. Loving someone just made me more vulnerable to being hurt.

_Loving?! _a corner of my mind shrieked. I came to a screeching halt and stood, stunned, amongst the trees. _Where did_ that_ come from? You've only known him for two days!_ I knew that. It just didn't seem to be making a difference. It didn't matter. I loved him. I _loved_ him. Oh, God. My knees buckled. I loved him – but I couldn't act on that. I loved him – but I was afraid to love again. _I loved him_ – but I'd promised Darren that I wouldn't betray him! A fierce pain started to form in my chest, like a chasm was opening there, and my knees buckled. I covered my mouth with one hand and squeezed my eyes tightly shut so the hot tears I could feel behind my eyelids wouldn't escape.

I'd made a promise to Darren. I wanted to take it back now, but I couldn't. I wanted..... but that didn't change anything. A promise is binding with our people, I'd been told numerous times. It must never be broken. And to dishonor Darren's memory by breaking a promise made to him would be even worse. I couldn't do it – no matter how much I wanted to.

So, very aware of how much my heart screamed at me to stop, I painfully gathered and restrained what I felt for Edward. I wrestled those feelings into submission, and locked them away. It was almost impossible, but I'd had a lot of practice at keeping emotions shut down. My love for Edward and my selfish side screamed in protest, causing so much pain that I doubled over. But then, a snarl twisting my mouth, I savagely forced myself upright. _Enough_, I told myself coldly and without pity. _Get up. Deal with it._ I had no choice.

Even though I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry for a while, I made myself go back to the Cullens' house. Luckily, there was no one in the family room, so nobody saw me flee to my room. I sat on my bed, pulling my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs. But my inactivity made me more aware of the feelings I had locked away, that were muffled, but still there, pulsing softly like a heartbeat, demanding to be released. I needed to keep busy. I drew my_ tanto_ from the waistband of my jeans and cleaned it, then put it back in my pack.

But as I put it in my large pack, the back of my hand brushed against my notebook. The notebook that held sketches of everything I'd ever held dear – except for a new face that was more precious to me than all the others.....

I hesitated. This would _not_ help me keep my feelings for Edward buried. But, as an artist, the temptation to make his perfect face a work of art was too much to resist, so I pulled out my black notebook. I ran my fingers down the front cover. It was worn from traveling everywhere with me – I'd only kept it in one piece by handling it carefully and by sheer force of will – but I loved it. I didn't flip through the pages, which held so many memories. That wouldn't help me keep myself together. Instead, since I knew exactly how many pages I'd used up in my drawing, I turned directly to the first blank page in my notebook.

I slid my pencil out of the wire spiral of the notebook, the looked at the page thoughtfully. How would I draw Edward? I could easily draw his features, but I wanted to capture more than that. I wanted his character to show in what I drew. Slowly, not wanting to make a single mistake, I drew the basic shape of his face, making sure to accurately render his strong jawline and sculpted chin. Then I added more general details – his angular cheekbones, straight nose, his eyebrows, the shape of his wide eyes, and his messy hair. Then I focused on the more specific things. The thick fringe of lashes that surrounded each eye. The crooked smile I already loved. The caring depths of his eyes.

After I'd finished, I inspected my work. Edward – very well rendered, if I do say so myself – smiled tenderly at me from the page of my notebook. I smiled slightly and nodded to myself in satisfaction, my eyes lingering on my sketch until a sharp pang in my chest reminded me that I wasn't supposed to be allowing myself to care about him.

I quickly turned the page and started a second sketch to distract myself. This one was of Esme – the first Cullen to be kind to me. I made sure to make her soft, dimpled face look as gentle as I could. Then, since I was in the drawing mood, I made a sketch of Alice – the bright girl who'd befriended me. Emmett was next. I couldn't help but smile as I drew his cheeky, boyish grin and playful eyes. And then Carlisle. I drew him with a calm, kind smile and wise, authoritative eyes. As I always did when I thought of Carlisle, I was filled almost to bursting with slightly awed curiosity. Who _was_ this father figure of this strange coven? How had he thought of this strange lifestyle? Why had he bothered to think of it in the first place? What road had led him to where he was today? While I'd been in his office, I'd glanced at the paintings that covered one of the walls of the room. Carlisle was in one of them – but that wasn't what I was curious about. What I was curious about was why he had been painted next to the three main members of the Volturi family, whose lifestyle went against every principle Carlisle seemed to have. Had he known them? Had he – I felt ill at the possibility – been one of them? I doubted that – no one as kind as Carlisle could _ever_ be a member of the Volturi. But his story was, no doubt, an incredible one, one I very much wanted to hear.

I closed my notebook and put it back in my pack. I didn't sketch Jasper or Rosalie – Jasper because I still wasn't sure I liked him since he knew what I was feeling, and Rosalie because I wasn't going to waste perfectly good paper on someone who hated me.

I was sitting on my bed, wondering what to do next, when I heard quiet footsteps coming down the hall toward my room. Soon, someone knocked quietly on my door. I flipped off the bed onto my feet and opened the door – to find myself face to face with Edward. My stomach just about jumped into my throat, and my locked-up emotions clambered for release, which I denied. Still, though, it hurt to look at him and know that I loved him, but had promised to stay away from him. I managed a tight smile, which became harder to keep in place when I remembered that he'd heard the song I'd played earlier.

Edward smiled kindly – cautiously – and spoke. "I was wondering if you wanted to practice piano tonight," he murmured. Our eyes met, and a mutual, unspoken agreement passed between us – we wouldn't mention our meeting in the forest to anyone, even ourselves.

I stepped out of my room and closed the door behind me. It felt odd to leave the door open, as though my privacy was being invaded. "Yes, thank you," I responded, and we went downstairs together, keeping a careful distance between each other.

I sat down on the bench in front of Edward's spectacular piano. Edward sat beside me, and I tried not to notice how my awareness of him suddenly increased. It was like I could feel every minute shift of his body, though we never touched.

Edward asked me to play a Mozart's Turkish Rondo, which, as I'd told him the first day of my piano lessons, I was very familiar with. I did so without a single mistake, and, after I'd finished, Edward laughed lightly and said, "Well, you certainly don't need me to teach you anything else."

I turned to look him full in the face, momentarily forgetting my inward battle, and grinned victoriously. Edward's eyes met mine – and held them. And held them. My heart lurched, and I quickly looked away.

Not loving Edward was going to be extremely hard.

Edward's Point of View

For two weeks after I'd accidentally heard Bella playing her anguished song, she seemed to withdraw. Not from Alice, Esme, Emmett, or Carlisle – on the contrary, she seemed to grow closer to them. She made jokes, laughed, and acted completely comfortable around them. No, she only withdrew from me. And, it seemed, the further she withdrew, the more pained I became. But the worst part was this – I didn't think she _wanted_ to stay away from me! Quite often, I would feel her gaze on me, and I would turn, catch her eye, and there would be so much longing in her eyes! But whenever that happened, just when I was about to approach her, she would look away and retreat to her room.

We were greatly annoying Jasper. Bella and I were always on edge near each other, and, consequently, so was Jasper. The longing and pain that was always radiating off Bella and me was making him tense. One day, he glared at me and silently snapped, _Edward, with God as my witness, I swear, if you don't do something about this – and I don't know what, so don't look at me like that – I'm going to loose my mind. _

I could sympathize. I felt like I was loosing my mind, too._ Be patient_, Carlisle advised. _She's hurting over something. She's probably confused. Give her _time_, son. _

But being patient was ridiculously hard, especially when I was ninety-nine point nine percent sure that she didn't want to stay away from me like she did.

Two weeks passed. Two tense, nervous weeks. Then things changed unexpectedly the night that Emmett challenged Jasper.

I'd seen the training sessions in Emmett's mind – how Bella taught him to be wily, fast, and patient. And I could see that Emmett was a much better fighter than he had been. But he never beat Bella. No matter how fast or unpredictable he tried to be, Bella was always one step ahead of him. Emmett had a feeling that he would never be able to beat Bella in a fight. I agreed.

On the night of the big fight, as Emmett called it, Jasper was confident – he didn't know about Emmett's training. He thought this would be just another easy win. But Emmett and Bella looked as smug as cats who'd had the cream. And Alice's eyes went wide with shock when she saw the outcome of the fight, though she said nothing.

My two brothers faced off, then started to circle each other. Jasper was braced for the usual immediate lunge from Emmett, but after about five seconds he realized that it wasn't coming. He frowned slightly, and wariness began to creep into his mind. Something had changed. He could tell. Carefully, testing Emmett's new abilities, he feinted to the left. Rather than jumping wildly left as he might have before, Emmett only made a simple compensation that left him still able to defend himself. Still testing the waters, Jasper shot his hand out as if he were going to try to take Emmett's arm off at the shoulder – and rapidly yanked his arm back when Emmett almost returned the favor.

Then the fight really began. Emmett – who was now surprisingly light on his feet – and Jasper darted back and forth, testing each other's defenses and looking for holes. They each closed in, dodging blows and flashing teeth. Emmett kept Jasper moving by coming at him from all directions, and Jasper – shocked – was forced to move back.

Emmett kept moving faster and faster, until Jasper had to fight harder than he'd had to fight since he'd left the South. In the middle of that, Emmett made a very convincing lunge, and, right as Jasper dodged it, changed directions abruptly. Emmett shot past Jasper's guard, and suddenly, his teeth were at Jasper's neck.

For a moment, all was silent and still. Carlisle, Esme, Alice, and Rosalie all stared open-mouthed. Bella grinned fiercely – like a tigress whose cub had just taken down its first kill. Emmett stepped away from Jasper with an evil grin, and said, his voice very relaxed, "No offense, Jasper, but you just got _owned_." Then, cackling at the shell-shocked look on Jasper's face, he turned and stood before Bella. He placed his fisted right hand against his left palm and bowed jokingly from the waist. "I have defeated my fearsome opponent, Master," he droned. "Now, when shall I become a master as well?"

Bella kept her face completely straight. She solemnly held her right hand out. A small stone was in her palm. "When you can take the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper, you shall become a master," she intoned. Then both Bella and Emmett burst into hysterical laughter. They laughed so hard that they had to lean on each other for support. And then the rest of us had to laugh too, because the hilarity was contagious.

After we'd all caught our breath, while Rosalie congratulated Emmett, Esme elbowed Carlisle playfully in the ribs. She held her hand out to him. "Pay up," she instructed, her eyes twinkling.

Carlisle laughed and drew her close to him. "Can't I just give you a kiss instead?" he asked.

Esme smiled. "You can give me a kiss _and_ pay up," she suggested. "How about that?"

Carlisle pretended to consider for a moment, then sighed, mock-defeated. "Very well," he said, pulling out his wallet, and counted out a hundred dollars, which he placed in Esme's hand. "You drive a hard bargain."

Esme grinned and stood on her tiptoes to kiss Carlisle. "Don't worry about it," she told him. "What's mine is yours, anyway."

"I suddenly fell so much better," Carlisle chuckled. He wrapped an arm around Esme's waist, and they went inside. We all followed them. "I am curious though," he began. "How did you know that Emmett was going to win?"

Esme looked satisfied with herself. "Because he didn't ask for a rematch after his last loss right away. I guessed that he had something planned."

Carlisle kissed her cheek. "Very astute of you, my dear."

We all ended up sitting on the couches in the family room as Esme flipped through the channels. She paused on Dancing With The Stars, and watched two humans tangoing, a small smile on her face.

Bella leaned forward and watched too. As they danced, however, she started to look more and more displeased, so when the dance was over, I asked her what she'd seen that she didn't like.

Bella scowled. "His posture was awful, and their footwork was sloppy," she replied angrily. "If the judges give them a good score, I'll be very annoyed."

But, as it turned out, the judges agreed with her. The couple received a very low score, and Alice saw then getting kicked off the show next week. "You were right," I observed.

Bella smirked. "Of course I was right," she said. "A _child_ could perform a better tango than those two."

"Which, of course, means you could, too, I suppose," I said teasingly, secretly delighted that Bella was speaking to me – this was the most she'd said to me in two weeks.

"Certainly," she replied smugly, humor deep in her brown eyes. Then she raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Couldn't you?" she asked.

A slow smile spread across Emmett's face. He leaned forward eagerly. "Is that a _challenge_ I hear?" he inquired.

Then the teasing was gone from Bella's eyes, and, though her voice remained teasing when she replied, "Only if he chooses to accept it," I could tell that, to her, this was a very serious thing.

I would take it just as seriously. I stood and held my hand out to her, and helped her to her feet when she took it. Esme, who was nearly bouncing up an down with excitement – she knew how much I cared for Bella – dashed upstairs and returned with a CD, which she swiftly put in a CD player. Music filled the air. Bella and I walked to a clear space of floor.

I had never been so conscious of anyone in my entire life. The way she moved – so gracefully it was like she had already started dancing. My hand curled around hers. I could feel that one touch all the way up my arm. And then, her hand on my shoulder and mine on her waist, the two of us standing so close together..... if my heart had been able to beat, it would have been racing. Our eyes met and held for a never ending second.

And then we started to dance. We moved through the steps perfectly, moving in the same instances, practically feeling what the other intended to do. As she had the last time I'd seen her dance, Bella made the dance come alive, breathing life, feeling, and passion into it, and I couldn't help but respond, letting my own passion flow into it. We sped up as the music increased in tempo, and that only added to the headiness of the moment. For that time, nothing else existed but Bella. There was nothing else in the world besides her, the way she moved, and how much I loved her. I felt like every last ounce of love I had for Bella was radiating off me, surrounding her. Surely she could feel it. Surely she could see.....

And then the song ended. We stopped moving, but we never broke eye contact. Our gazes remained locked, the connection stayed intact. I don't know what might have happened if I had continued to look into her eyes for even a second longer. Maybe I would have told her that I loved her. Maybe I would have skipped that part and kissed her.

But I don't suppose I'll ever know, because at that _exact_ moment, Emmett _had _to open his mouth. "Oh. My. _God,_" he said, his eyes about to pop out of his head and his jaw nearly hitting the floor. "Are you – are you two having a..... a _moment?_"

And then my and Bella's little world to ourselves shattered. The spell was broken. And I couldn't have been more furious about it. Slowly, I turned to glare at Emmett. _We _were_!_ I thought furiously._ And as soon as I get you alone, I'm going to_ kill _you!_

Bella stepped away from me, and my hands dropped limply to my sides. "Don't be silly, Emmett," she said coolly. "It was just a dance."

Emmett was starting to grin. In my temper, I thought he looked like an imbecile. "You _were!_" he said, shocked and laughingly at the same time. "You and Edward were having a -"

Bella didn't let him finish his sentence. When she cut him off, her voice was low and dangerous enough to make him stop. "Enough," she said softly. Emmett might have argued, but even he could see that if he didn't obey, Bella wouldn't react well – _at_ _all_. Bella turned to me, but stared at her feet instead of looking me in the eye. "Thank you for the dance," she said simply. And then she went upstairs to her room.

I stared after her like an idiot. I couldn't believe that she'd just walked away! Something had changed. Some fundamental ground had shifted. I could feel it. I would never be the same. My love for Bella had become even more concrete. I loved her. I would always love her. And while I'd been looking into her eyes, I'd seen that she loved me too.

Now I just had to find a way to get her to stop fighting, and acknowledge it.

**A/N: I thought that I should address something that I read in a review. Someone remarked that Carlisle sounded like a gossiper in the last chapter, and, while that doesn't bother me, I figured I'd explain myself. Carlisle wants Edward to be happy more than he wants just about anything else in the world. He and Esme are worried that maybe Edward was changed too young, or something. So, now that Edward's found someone, I think that Carlisle would do whatever he could to encourage Edward to go after her. **

**P.S: Next week I'll be going on vacation, so I won't be able to update for a while. **

**Thank you for reading! **

– **JasperIsAManlyMan **


	9. Remember

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or its characters. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

Was I _stupid?_ Was I trying to _sabotage_ myself? What had I been _thinking_, asking Edward to dance? Or had I been thinking at all?_ Obviously not_, since common sense said that dancing with Edward would only make me want to be with him more! _Apparently not_, because, even though I'd _known_ that in some small corner of my mind, _I'd asked him anyway! _Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, _stupid!_

I sat silently on my bed, curled up in a ball, keeping my raging criticisms locked in my head rather than screaming them out loud at myself, stomping around my room, and throwing things like I wanted to. It was hard, but it was better than letting the Cullens – especially Edward – hear what I was thinking. Although, I remembered belatedly, Jasper would know what I was feeling anyway. I didn't have enough spare emotion to care.

Eventually, the furious thoughts subsided, and let the pained, longing ones that I had grown familiar with over the last two weeks come forward. I would have thought that, as I distanced myself from Edward, the pain I felt over not being able to be with him would have lessened. I'd been wrong. It had gotten worse and worse, until every time I even _looked_ at him, a part of me would scream to run to him, to let myself be with him. And every time I shut that voice down, it became harder and harder, more and more painful, to do so.

And my actions tonight weren't going to help. I'd let myself be close to him. I'd let him hold me in his arms and dance with me. I'd felt my hand in his, my body close to his, and had felt so at home. I'd looked him in the eyes for the first time in weeks, and had been unable to look away, even after I knew that my eyes were surely telling him everything I felt for him. I'd been unable to look away – because his eyes, his warm, golden eyes, had been sending me the same message my eyes had been sending him. _I love you! I love you!_

Now staying away from him was going to be nearly impossible. Earlier I'd just had to fight my own feelings. But now it wasn't that simple. He'd seen. He'd understood. He felt the same way about me. Now I had to fight both the knowledge that I loved him, _and_ the knowledge that he loved me, too. Before, I'd let a few daydreams slip past my control – dreams that _maybe_ he _might_ care about me romantically. But now I knew for certain. And I knew that I would be hurting him by keeping my promise to Darren, and staying away from him. Hurting him as badly as I was hurting myself. My resolve almost shattered. I could handle hurting myself. That was acceptable. But hurting Edward.....

My jaws and hands clenched as I tried to keep myself from screaming. The pain in my chest, which had been my constant companion for the last two weeks, flared until it felt like my heart was literally being torn in half. On the one side, I knew that I only had to let go of a promise made to a dead man in order to make both myself and Edward happy. On the other hand, the part of me that still clung to Darren's memory with all ten fingers refused to let me do exactly that. The conflict grew louder as both sides screamed at each other, and as it grew, the pain grew as well. It tore at me until I was gnashing my teeth and gripping my hair so hard I almost pulled it out by the roots. I needed to get out of here. I needed to think, somewhere where I could be alone. I needed to get a handle on myself.

So I slipped out the window in my room instead of the door – which would have taken me past the Cullens – and made a wild dash for the woods.

Alice's Point of View

Bella was a masochist, and Edward was an idiot. My reasons for thinking so were perfectly sound. For example: Bella, when you're in love with someone – and we all knew it; it was in her eyes – it is not necessary to cause yourself pain by staying away from the person you're in love with. Edward, when the family empath is picking up on a ridiculous amount of pain coming from the girl you love, _do not stare stupidly at the empath in shock and wonder if the girl would want you to comfort her_. Go immediately to said girl's room and do something, preferably _before _she jumps out the window. See? Perfectly sound.

So I was justified in my annoyed grumblings as I went upstairs to distract myself until Bella came back and I could give her a talking-to. I was toying with the idea of finishing the design I'd been working on in my spare time – a dress that Bella would look amazing in, not that she'd ever agree to wear it. Of course, who said anything about my needing Bella's agreement..... Anyway, that's what I was thinking about when I passed Bella's room. The door was still open from when Edward had burst into the room to do something about what Jasper felt emanating off Bella, a second too late. So I could see the creases in the bed sheets where Bella had been lying, and could see the large black pack that was laying beside the bed on the floor. I could also see that it was open, and that a notebook was poking out of the opening.

I paused, my curiosity aroused. No, I shouldn't. It would be so rude to invade Bella's privacy like that. I couldn't. Oh, but it was right there! I hesitated in the doorway for a second, torn, then caved. I slipped into Bella's room silently, and softly closed the door. I pulled her battered notebook out of her pack, and would have immediately started to flip through it, but when I pulled it out, I heard something like metal click quietly against the aluminum spiral that held the notebook together. I peeked quickly into the large pack..... and my jaw dropped.

She had a _sword_ in there! An actual sword – the blade was about two feet long, and slightly curved; a Japanese _katana_. And a shorter sword, and a knife – all Japanese looking. At first I was totally stunned, but then, after a while, it started to make sense. _She said she was a soldier,_ I reminded myself. _What kind of soldier doesn't have weapons?_

So I went back to the notebook. I started at the back page, because I wanted to start with her most recent drawings, and was surprised to find a sketch of Carlisle. I looked over the sketch of my father's face; Bella had captured his air of kind leadership perfectly.

I turned the page, and found a picture of Emmett. A small smile curved up the corners of my mouth. Bella had really grown close to my silly bear of a brother.

I turned another page, and was suddenly face to face with myself. Startled pleasure swept through me as I looked down at my smiling face. Bella had drawn me with an ear to ear, bright, bubbly grin, and twinkling eyes.

A drawing of Esme, looking as gentle and motherly as I'd ever seen her, was on the next page.

And on the fifth page in from the back was a drawing of Edward. The sketches of my other family members had been good, with plenty of detail, but this..... this portrait had been done carefully and laboriously. Every line, every shadow, had been drawn with such careful accuracy – Bella must have worked especially hard on this, not wanting to get a single thing wrong. And she hadn't – it was absolutely amazing. Not only that, but the way she had sketched Edward, with his eyes and smile so gentle and caring, made it clear that Bella was completely in love with him.

I sighed to myself. If Bella loved Edward so much, what was the problem? Why was she so conflicted? Why was she resisting? I shook my head and continued to flip through the notebook.

The next picture was one I'd seen before – the picture Bella had shown my family and me when she'd first come to our home. The picture of the three vampires she was looking for. The picture of the three vampires that, according to Jasper, Bella hated enough to kill. I studied their faces thoughtfully. If I was being honest with myself, I had to admit that they looked easy to hate. Just something about them made my skin crawl.

I quickly turned the page, and looked at the picture of the Hispanic-looking woman that I found. She looked very kind, with large, understanding, very dark eyes and straight dark hair that hung to her slender shoulders. I wondered if this was one of Bella's friends.

The next page held a picture of a couple. Both the man and the woman were smiling, and had light hair and eyes, though the woman was much slighter than the man whose arm was wrapped around her waist. The man looked American, and the woman had distinctly Russian features. If Bella hadn't looked so different from the couple, I might have thought that they were her parents. Something about the way the man held the woman reminded me of Carlisle and Esme.

Smiling, I turned the page. Then I had to stifle a gasp. A young man, about eighteen, had been drawn on the next page. He was very handsome, and looked so much like the man and woman on the previous page that I knew he was their son, but that wasn't what had made me gasp. What had made me gasp had been the way that Bella had drawn him – in the same way she had drawn Edward. In a way that made it obvious that she had feelings for this boy that went beyond friendship. Was this boy the reason that Bella was staying away from Edward?

I started to panic. This did _not_ bode well for the happy future I'd been hoping for, but had been unable to see, thanks to Bella's strange invisibility when it came to my visions.

"His name was Darren." Bella's soft voice behind me made me yelp and jump about a foot in surprise. I spun to face her – she was standing by the window she had jumped out of about ten minutes ago. I hadn't even heard her coming. Her notebook was still open in my hands, and I could feel the shame creeping into my expression. Caught in the act. But Bella made a soothing gesture. "It's fine," she said, her voice still softer than normal. She motioned for me to sit down, the sat beside me.

I cleared my throat. "So, Darren, huh?" I asked mischievously. Might as well do a little fishing for information. "What's the story behind that?"

Bella looked away from me. "I met him. I liked him. And then he died." The pain in her voice was harsh and close to the surface.

Of course – Bella had said his name _was_ Darren. Guilt and sympathy flooded through me. I'd been worried about whether or not she would end up with Edward, and all this time Bella had been healing from a broken heart. Of course she was hesitant to love again. I felt like a schmuck – selfish and self-centered. I hugged Bella tightly. "I'm so sorry," I whispered. "I wouldn't have asked if I'd known."

Bella was staring out the window. "But you didn't know," she murmured absently, never looking back at me.

I decided to move on to a new topic, so I turned another page of Bella's notebook. On that page was a sketch of a little girl, maybe ten years old. She looked a lot like Bella, except her nose was a different shape, and her eyes were lighter. A big, silly grin was on her round child's face, and her slightly too long bangs hung down into her eyes. She was the most adorable child I'd ever seen. "She's so cute!" I exclaimed. "Who is she?" Bella glanced down at her notebook, as if she meant to take just a quick look then continue staring out the window, but when she saw the girl, she froze. Her already pale face went as white as bone, and her eyes widened, filled with horror, shock, and pain. She made a strangled sound in the back of her throat. Tears filled her brown eyes. "Bella?" I cried. "What's wrong?" Bella stood abruptly, shoving away from the bed like the notebook in my hands had burst into flames, her eyes still locked on the picture of the girl in her notebook. She clapped one hand over her mouth, and started to tremble.

To his credit, this time Edward didn't wait until one of us told him to do something. In fact, he might have been a bit overzealous, because he almost took Bella's bedroom door off it's hinges, and he _did _crack the plaster of the wall. In the next second, he had cupped Bella's face in his hands and asked, very gently, hiding the panic I'm sure he was really feeling, "Are you all right?"

Bella's wild eyes met his for a moment before her tears spilled over onto Edward's hands. Then she jerked herself away from Edward and bailed out the window – again. And Edward might have let her go again – if she hadn't been crying. Instead, he stared in abject horror at Bella's tears in the palms of his hands for a split second, looking like he was seeing the most terrible thing in the world, then jumped out the window and ran into the forest after her. I briefly considered going after both of them, but realized that I would never be able to keep up with them, and I probably wasn't the person Bella wanted to see at the moment. So I listened until I couldn't hear either Bella's or Edward's footsteps, then sighed and let Jasper, who had come into the room shortly after Edward had, wrap his arms tightly around me.

"It's not your fault," he told me gently, his bass voice rumbling more than usual because my ear was against his chest. "You couldn't have known that she would be so upset. You still don't know _why_ she got so upset."

I sighed and stood on my tiptoes to kiss Jasper – and I was short enough that he still had to bend down a lot so I could reach him. "I know," I said. "But, for whatever reason, I _did_ upset her. I just hope Edward can convince her to come back."

Bella's Point of View

Right after I'd pulled myself together and had returned to the Cullens' house, Alice accidentally showed me a picture of Sarah. My little sister. The eight year old that had been murdered not even three weeks ago. I'd kept myself from breaking down by not letting myself think about her – not about her scent, her eyes, her smile, her happy spirit, or about the trivial facts: her favorite color, blue; her favorite animal, butterflies; her favorite flower, Buttercups; her favorite song, "Walking On Sunshine".....

But now it was all coming back in a rush. I couldn't stop it. Every detail, no matter how small. And it was killing me. The grief I'd suppressed first by revenge, then by inattention, came roaring to the surface. It made me remember. It made me remember when I'd first left my pride to go around the world, and she had begged me not to go, but I'd had enough of Renee, so I'd gone anyway.

And, as I ran away from the Cullens for the second time, it made me remember the day she'd died.

I'd crossed the Mexican border into the United States – Texas, to be specific. I'd tentatively reached my mind out to contact Sarah, afraid that she would be angry with me for shutting her our after Darren had died. But she'd been thrilled.

_We're in Louisiana. Where are you?_ she'd asked excitedly.

_Ummm..... I think I just passed Brownsville,_ I'd responded. I hadn't been really keeping track of my progress, but that was my best estimate.

_I'm so glad you're home! Mom's been kinda testy these past few months 'cause she didn't know what you were 'getting yourself into'._

I'd been able to hear the air quotes around the last three words. It had made me laugh, though the reminder of why I'd kept to myself – Darren's death – had hurt. _Well, I'm back now,_ I'd replied.

_Oh, I can't wait any more!_ Sarah had squealed. _I'm coming to meet you. Stay along the coast so I can find you easier. See you soon!_ Through her eyes, I'd seen her skinny eight year old body change into the body of a tawny mountain lion, like the second form our mother had. I had no idea where my panther form came from, but Cat genetics aren't always predictable.

We'd exchanged information as we ran toward each other. I told her what I'd learned while I'd been on the road, and about the friends I'd made. Sarah had told me about what she was learning with the pride. _I don't see how you sat through history,_ she'd thought crossly. _Nicole's a great teacher, but I can't concentrate on the Volturi's rise to power or the formation of Shaylynn's laws! _I'd been about to make a funny remark when Sarah's mental tone changed from happy, if a little annoyed that I was teasing her, to wary and frightened. _Someone's chasing me,_ she'd said, her mind voice small, as if she was whispering. _Three people. I can hear them._ Suddenly worried for my sister, I'd picked up my pace and had listened through her ears.

I'd agreed with her – three pursuers. And, I'd realized, they weren't running on four legs. A bad feeling had started to form in the pit of my stomach. I'd started to sprint. _I don't think they're Cats, Sarah. Run faster. Try to meet me,_ I'd instructed, desperation starting to make me panic. But I'd had to hide my fear from her – she'd been scared enough as it was.

Sarah had obeyed silently, but she hadn't been a full grown Cat – her shorter legs could only move so fast. She'd given her best efforts, but it hadn't made much difference. _They're catching up, Bella,_ she'd thought, her fear growing.

My stomach had clenched and dropped. Sarah had fought before, but never alone, and she wasn't the best fighter to begin with. _Keep running,_ I'd ordered. _I'm coming_. I'd stretched my body out, taking larger, faster strides, running flat out, practically flying over the ground. _Let me make it in time,_ I'd prayed. _Let me make it in time._ In time for what, I'd been afraid to voice, even in my mind.

Sarah had heard malicious laughter behind her, and had turned her head to see who it was that was chasing her. She'd caught a glimpse of two men and one woman with dead white skin through the trees. They'd still been a good distance away, but, even from afar, Sarah had been able to see their bright red eyes. Her shrill, piercing mental shriek had reverberated through my skull. _Vampires!_ she'd screamed, and had tried to run faster.

I, too, had pushed myself for more speed, but I had reached my limit. _Sarah!_ I'd shouted._ Keep running! Don't look back again! Just run!_

She'd tried. She really had tried. But when one of the males had called out behind her, "Here, kitty-kitty!" she hadn't been able to stop herself. Ignoring my howl of _No, Sarah!_, she'd glanced back over her shoulder, terrified to see that the three were much closer now. And her looking back had slowed her down just enough. The female, who had blazing red hair, had sprung forward onto her back and sank her teeth into Sarah's shoulder. Sarah had screamed, a human scream in her mind, and a mountain lion's scream from her body. And my mind had been so closely linked with hers that I'd felt the pain, and I'd screamed, too.

Maybe if the female hadn't bitten Sarah, she could have held them off until I'd gotten there. But the venom had entered her bloodstream, making her dizzy and fatigued. The vampires had circled her, and the brown-haired male had stretched out his hand like he was going to touch her. Sarah hadn't been completely under the venom's influence yet, so she'd been able to lash out with her claws and scratch his hand, but then she'd lost her hold on her Cat shape, and had changed back into a human girl right in front of the vampires.

They'd all hissed and jumped back, but soon the brown-haired male had approached her again. The other male, who had black hair, had protested. "Surely you're not still going to – my God, she's just a child!" Sarah had looked up into their faces from where she lay on the ground, her vision swimming, and had seen that the brown-haired male didn't care.

"So?" he'd asked the other male. And then he'd kicked her in the ribs, breaking bone. Sarah and I had screamed in unison, and I'd tried to run faster.

_Don't you touch her! _I'd shrieked, but Sarah had been the only one who could hear me. _I'll kill you! I'll kill you!_

_Bella? _Sarah had thought sluggishly.

_I'm coming!_ I'd promised her franticly. _I'm almost there!_

_Bella?_ she'd repeated slowly. _Sorry. Love you. _

_No!_ I'd screamed. _No, no, no! Stay awake, Sarah! I need to see where you are so I can find you! _

The brown-haired male had hit her again, this time across her back, and had dislocated her shoulder. I'd shrugged off the borrowed pain as I'd run. But the pain coupled with the affects of the vampire venom had sent Sarah falling into unconsciousness.

Later, I was glad that Sarah had passed out. When I'd found her body a few minutes later, I'd realized that after she'd lost consciousness, the sadistic vampire had lost interest, and had quickly broken her neck rather than dragging out her death. It had been quicker that way – because, even if Sarah had managed to stay awake, I never would have managed to get to her in time to save her.

As I ran through the forest near the Cullens' house and thought that, my knees buckled, sending me sprawling onto the forest floor. I didn't bother getting up. I just curled up in a ball and cried like I'd only cried once before – when Darren had died.

It was agonizing – to know that I'd been _so close_, but had been unable to do a thing. It made it worse than if I'd been halfway around the world. Maybe if I'd..... done _something_, I could have saved her. It was my fault. I hadn't thought of something fast enough, and she'd died.

It was too much to handle – my body automatically took on a form that was better able to handle the pain. My human shaped body, curled up in a ball, became a huge, shuddering black panther. And my panther mind wasn't used used to this kind of pain. Stunned and frightened by emotions that my animal mind couldn't quite comprehend, I tipped my head back and let rip with a panther's scream. My claws extended fully, and I tore gashes into the ground.

Somehow, over the sounds of my scream and tearing earth, I heard a soft intake of breath from behind me.

Maddened by grief, I reacted according to my most basic instincts – when surprised, prepare for an attack. So I snarled, and whirled to face the sound, curling my lip up to show my Cat's teeth and swiping my right paw in an arc in front of me to show my five inch long claws.

I spun to face what had surprised me – and what I saw hit me like a splash of cold water, snapping me out of my furious mindset and plunging me instead into horror.

Standing under the boughs of a giant fir tree, his face as white as sun-bleached bone, his eyes huge in his dead white face, and his hand touching the trunk of the tree as if he needed the support, was Edward Cullen.


	10. Be Happy

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

I immediately sheathed my claws and stopped snarling. All the breath rushed out of my lungs as though I'd been punched. Edward continued to stare at me – a panther that was taller than him by about two feet – with complete shock and some horror written all over his face. I stared back at him, unable to move or think anything other than _Oh, no_.

We stared at each other for several minutes, both of us too frozen with shock to speak. Edward recovered enough to move his lips, though no sound came out – he still hadn't started breathing again. _Bella?_ he mouthed.

I blinked and swallowed. Then very slowly, I nodded my large head, then kept my head down – I didn't want to see him become disgusted or afraid. I didn't want to see him walk away from me. The pain returned, and I had to take great, tremulous breaths to keep from exploding. The truth was out. I'd wanted to be honest with Edward for a long time – well, I'd told him the truth, in a manner of speaking. And now I was going to lose him for good.

I heard him take a step. But it was a step toward me, not a step away. He wasn't running away! A small amount of hope began to burn in my chest, and I stopped breathing for a moment, then forced myself to draw another breath in, to keep calm. I couldn't afford to do anything wrong now. He took another step forward, then another, and another, until he was right in front of me, so close that, even with my head bowed, I could see his chest and legs. I unconsciously flattened my ears against my skull in a silent Cat apology, expecting anger. But I felt Edward's cool hand rest lightly on the top of my head. He stayed like that for a second, the slowly started to comb his long fingers through my fur. I was trembling – with fear that he would suddenly realize that I was a monster and run away, and with joy that, for now, at least, he didn't seem to hate me. Still moving very slowly, he slid his hand down until it was under my chin, then carefully raised my head, forcing me to look him in the eyes.

He looked deeply into my eyes, like he was searching for proof that I was indeed Bella. Even though I knew he couldn't hear me, I started to silently plead with him. _I'm still me_, I thought. _I'm still Bella. _

Edward exhaled sharply. "Bella," he repeated softly. This time it wasn't a question; more of a shocked realization.

I made a soft whining sound, a timid question in Cat-speak. _Are you angry?_

Edward seemed to understand, in a way. He took a deep breath and asked, "Could you change back? I would like to talk to you." He was sure to keep his voice very soothing, like I was an animal he didn't want to spook. I didn't blame him. But he wanted to talk. He would have questions, questions that I was afraid to answer. I hesitated, but then breathed deeply and reached for my In Between form, the form Edward had always seen me in. I owed him answers.

And then I was sitting on the ground, my human shaped legs crossed Indian style and my fingers twisting nervously in my lap. Edward gasped again when he saw me change, and I pulled my chin away from his hand, looking away from him. Very softly, meaning every word, I whispered, "I'm sorry." Tears started to build in my eyes, and I tried to blink them back, but one escaped and slid down my cheek.

Before I could wipe it away myself, Edward had sat down beside me and gently brushed the tear away with his fingertips. He gently turned my head toward him, but I kept my eyes down. "Bella," he said quietly, "look at me."

I closed my eyes instead. "I'm afraid," I whispered.

Edward's voice was sad. "Of me?"

I shook my head fiercely, more tears running down my face. "No, not of you." _Never of you_, I thought. "I'm afraid that you'll hate me."

Edward cupped my face in his cold, marble-hard hands. For all their hardness, no hands could have been more gentle. "I will _never_ hate you," he promised, his voice still soft, but sure. Then it turned pleading. "Please, look at me." I trusted him to keep his promise. So I slowly opened my eyes and looked up into his face. And his eyes held no hatred, no disgust. They were so filled with gentle concern and care for me that a few more tears slipped past my control. Edward wiped them all away. We just looked at each other for another immeasurable space of time, then he started to ask his questions. The first one was one I'd been expecting. "What are you?" Edward asked.

I drew in a shaky breath. Time to come clean. "We call ourselves Cats," I whispered. "We're shape shifters."

Edward chuckled, one strained laugh. "Yes, I noticed," he remarked, gently teasing. Then, "How old are you?"

Of all the questions to ask when you find out that the girl who has been living in you house is a shape shifter! I looked up at Edward in puzzlement. "Why do you want to know that?" I asked.

He smiled slightly. "Because you're an experienced fighter, and while you _look_ like a teenager, you certainly don't act like one."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "I should hope not, but I actually _am_ a teenager – I'll be eighteen in September." Then I sighed. "As for why I don't act my age, you have to grow up fast in my world."

Edward cocked his head slightly. "Why?"

I shrugged wearily. "I told you that I was a soldier. In my world, after a child turns four or five, he or she starts training. At age seven it is assumed that a child has learned enough to take care of itself, and the child is put on active duty – and that means fighting and killing." I felt bitterness twist my expression. "And once you start killing, you just don't go back to being a carefree child."

Edward's face was strained. "This happened to you?"

"Of course," I answered. Then I added, mostly to myself, "But I had it a little harder than most."

"Why?" Edward asked.

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. "Battle is scary. Most children have their parents to comfort them. I sort of had to keep myself afloat on my own."

Edward shook his head, his eyes far away. "The first night you came here, you said that if you went back to your family your mother would kill you," he recalled.

I laughed harshly. "Oh, yes. My darling mother. She's hated me since I was born."

Edward frowned. "I don't understand," he admitted.

I chuckled darkly. "Oh, it all started with this huge pride scandal – my mother, Renee, the only daughter of the pride leader, and therefore the only heir, had a love affair with a human man named Charles Swan. She claimed to be in love with him, and even went so far as to marry him. But three months after they married, Renee's father, the pride leader at that time, was killed. So Renee left Charles Swan and took command of her father's pride. But," I continued, my voice lowering, "not before she became pregnant with me."

Edward's frown deepened. "What difference does that make? You're still her daughter."

I tilted my head back to look at the treetops, wishing that I could see the stars. "I was the result of her greatest indiscretion, a constant reminder that she'd screwed up," I explained. "My mother doesn't like to screw up, and she likes it even less when people _remind_ her of times when she screwed up. So she hates me. And the rest of the pride hates me because of something I had no power over – as if I could have chosen who my father was going to be."

"What does who your father was matter?" he asked, frustration seeping into his voice.

"He was a human," I reminded him. "I guess my pride thought that made me weaker than they were – less of a Cat, which is ridiculous, because I'm not the first half-blood, and the Cat gene is _always_ dominant. But also," I added, "the members of a pride are born and raised to be very close to their pride mates – mentally." I searched my mind for a way to explain. "You know about the Quileutes, right? I don't see how you _couldn't_ know, living so close to them."

"If you mean the gene that allows them to turn into rather large wolves, then yes, my family and I know about them," Edward replied.

"Well, when they're in their wolf forms, they can hear each other's thoughts, share each other's minds," I began.

Edward nodded. "I know."

"You know?" I repeated, surprised. "How did you know? I can't see the Quileutes telling you – they _hate_ your kind."

"No, they didn't exactly _tell _me – not intentionally, at least," Edward elaborated. Then he cleared his throat. "I read their minds."

My mind went blank with shock. Then, strengthening the mental shield around my mind, I asked warily, "You can do that?"

Edward nodded, scrutinizing my expression. "Ever since my new birth. Vampires, humans, werewolves – I can hear all of their thoughts without even trying. I just hear them, as if they were spoken out lout. _You_, though," he murmured, his eyes boring into mine, "are a mystery. I can't hear anything from you – not a whisper – ever. Not even when I actually try." He sighed, and shook his head, his eyes chagrined. "It's very frustrating." I tried not to laugh at his expression, but a small choked giggle made its way out of my throat anyway. Edward glanced at me, a combination of wry humor and exasperation on his face, and prompted me to continue my story. "So, what about the Quileute wolves?"

I got back on topic. "Well, Cats can hear each other's thoughts no matter what form we're in. The result is a mental closeness that the Quileutes can never achieve. To be a part of everyone's mind, all the time..... sometimes it gets hard to distinguish your feelings from the feelings of another pride mate, which can be good – prides are rarely disunited."

"But at the same time," Edward concluded, understanding flashing in his eyes, "you mother's feelings about you would taint the opinions of the other pride members."

I smirked. "Crappy luck, huh?"

Edward didn't share my humor. "So you had no one growing up at all?" he asked sadly.

A half-formed memory filled my mind – a sweet, heart-shaped face framed by curly, dark blond hair. Hazel eyes smiling down at me. "No – a few people of the pride resisted the hate that came from Renee's mind. One was named Amelia. She was a half-blood, too." Another memory started to surface – a sining voice that wasn't exactly pretty, but was loving enough to be beautiful. "She used to sing me to sleep."

Edward raised his eyebrows. "I thought you didn't sleep."

"Cat children sleep and eat until about age fifteen because their child bodies need the energy to grow," I explained. "After a certain point it no longer becomes necessary. For most, their bodies stop aging about three to five years later – with the usual early and late bloomers. I've reached that point – this is as old as I will every look." I sighed. "Anyway, Amelia died when I was two. But I had my aunt, on my _mother's_ side, ironically, and her husband, and I had my cousin, Brittany, and there was Brian and Nicole, too. And I'm lucky – all of them except Amelia and my aunt and uncle are still alive."

"How did Amelia and your aunt and uncle die?" Edward asked.

I shrugged. "In battle – the way most Cats who live like we do die."

"I've heard you mention battle several times," Edward remarked, "and you've said that you were a soldier, but I've yet to hear what exactly your kind fights _against_."

I winced, and looked away. This was one of the hard answers. "Don't you know?" I whispered. I held my arms out in front of me, displaying the scars that dotted my hands and forearms – bite marks, from vampire teeth.

There was silence for a moment. Then, "Oh," Edward said, his voice subdued. "I see. You've been fighting and killing vampires for your whole life." He was quiet for another minute, but then he asked, "So why did you agree to stay with us, a family of seven vampires?"

I shook my head, remembering my confusion. "That was a question I asked myself a lot for the first few days I stayed with you. I still don't know completely. By all rights, I _should _hate and be afraid of you and your family – I've almost been killed by vampires several times, and people I've cared about have been killed by vampires..... but I don't." I studied Edward's face, his logic-defying eyes especially. "I think it's because you're not like the others of you kind. You've made a conscious effort to..... well, _not_ be vampires." I grinned. "And Esme was kinder to me than almost anyone has ever been. That really made me realize just how different you were."

Edward laughed. "I'll have to thank her for inadvertently saving us from a warrior Cat."

I laughed with him. "Any more questions?" I asked.

Edward's smile vanished. I sobered in response. "Tell me what happened to your back," he said.

_Oh_. I thought. _That's not so bad_. His expression had made me worry that he was going to ask some terrible question. But this one would be hard to explain – he wouldn't understand. I sighed. "You probably won't understand," I warned. "The scars on my back are called Marks. I know that when Esme first saw them, she thought someone had tortured me or something, but it's not like that." I hesitated.

"What?" Edward demanded.

"This is going to make Cats sound like sadistic barbarians," I muttered, but continued anyway. "I received my Marks willingly."

I swear, even the birds and animals in the forest around us went dead silent. Edward's eyes slowly widened. "Willingly?" Edward repeated, sounding dazed. "You..... _let_ someone burn a pattern onto your back?"

I started to get defensive. "The Marks are the highest honor a Cat can receive. They signify bravery, skill, intelligence, and strength. It's like...." I trailed off, trying to find a suitable comparison. "It's like the Medal of Honor, a black belt, a Ph. D., and a Purple Heart all rolled into one."

"But burning it into the skin?" Edward snapped, his eyes blazing. "A little _extreme_, Bella, don't you think?"

I gave him a feral grin. "No. Medals can be stolen. Certificates can be burned. Our way preserves it no matter what – and the scars show in both of my forms, human and Cat. This way, they can never be erased."

Edward glared at me. "And the pain?"

I gestured dismissively. "That's a part of the test. If you can't handle pain, you don't deserve the Marks."

Edward shook his head. "And you passed the test?"

I turned away from him and lifted the hem of my shirt, showing him my completed Marks. "Obviously."

Then, to my shock, I felt Edward's cold fingertip tracing one of the lines of my Marks, looping across my ribcage, barely touching me, but still making my every nerve ending feel like a live wire. I froze for a second before reality came crashing back down on me. Edward's knowing the truth didn't change anything. I'd still made a promise to Darren. I still couldn't be with the beautiful vampire whose hand was following the pattern of my Marks. The old pain returned, and I cringed away from Edward's hand.

"Do you want to know anything else?" I asked, the words coming out a harsher than I'd intended.

Edward's hand dropped dejectedly to his side, but he nodded. "Who is the girl?"

A grip of ice tightened around my heart, so cold it burned. "The girl?" I rasped, as if I didn't know who he was talking about. But of course I knew. Edward knew that. He waited.

"Sarah," I breathed, closing my eyes and seeing her face behind my eyelids. "My little sister." I felt tears streak down my face, but this time I let them fall. I was tired of not crying.

"Oh," Edward whispered. "Oh, Bella, I'm sorry." And just like he had before, he started to wipe my tears away. "What happened?"

I felt my lips unconsciously curl up into a snarl. "You remember the three vampires I was looking for?" I knew he did – vampires don't forget. "They murdered her." I opened my eyes – Edward wasn't startled by the fury in them. He just looked pained for me. The pain over my sister's death overwhelmed the anger I felt toward her killers. "She was _eight!_" I whispered, my voice cracking. "They _knew_ she was just a child. And they killed her anyway."

I shook my head sharply. I didn't need to have another breakdown. "Any more questions?" I asked, trying to return to a light tone of voice.

Edward didn't. In fact, if anything, the pain in his eyes _increased_. "Just one." And this time, _he_ looked away. He closed his eyes like he was expecting a horrible answer. "Who is the boy?"

This time I really didn't know who he was talking about. "Who?"

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. "The boy," he repeated. "Light hair and eyes. Darren." He paused, then continued, his voice barely audible. "The boy Alice thinks you love."

_Oh_. Darren. Oh. This was not something I'd wanted him to ask. It was too close to the conflict I was feeling, and the promise I'd made. But I knew I was hurting Edward. I knew I had to answer. I took a deep breath before I began. "I met Darren about a year ago in Siberia. We almost killed each other – he was a werewolf." Edward's eyes flashed open, and his mouth tightened before he closed his eyes again. I took this as permission to continue. "He was..... kind," I said haltingly. "Funny. I....." I stopped and, without even thinking about it, reached out and touched Edward's shoulder. His head whipped around, and he looked at me with wide, shocked eyes. I suddenly realized that, besides when I'd taken his hand when we danced, this was the first time I had actually taken initiative and touched him. I didn't draw back. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I know it hurts. It hurts me, too. Yes, I loved Darren, but he died eight months ago."

Edward's expression twisted in pain. He reached up and stroked my cheek. "People can love people after death," he told me softly. "I understand."

The way he said it..... it sounded like he was apologizing – or saying goodbye. It frightened me. "No," I said desperately, "you don't, because I -" I stopped myself before I could do even more damage. Telling him that I loved him, too, more than I'd loved Darren, would only hurt him more, because that wouldn't change the promise I'd made.

Edward waited for me to continue, but when he saw that I couldn't, he smiled. It was a terrible smile, full of heartbreak. I felt my heart break in response, and fresh tears filled my eyes, spilled over onto my cheeks. He took my face between his hands. "I love you," he breathed, like he just wanted to say it once out loud. "I can see that you can't..... I understand. It's all right," he whispered.

_No_, I thought in anguish. _It isn't. I love you! But I promised Darren, and I loved him, too, and I can't break my promise to him! I'm sorry! I made that promise before I knew that I loved you! If I'd known, I wouldn't have made it!_

And then, I heard something that completely shocked me – as clearly as though he were standing right beside me, I could hear Darren's voice in my mind. _Be happy._

My heart twisted agonizingly in my chest. _But I _promised_!_ I replied silently. _I can't break it!_

_You wouldn't be breaking your promise to me– I'm releasing you of it._

_But_ – I started to argue, but Darren's voice cut me off.

_Bella, _he said gently. _I can't be with you – not anymore. But _he_ can. He loves you. You love _him_. Be happy, Bella. I'm gone – let me go._

And, slowly, I could feel the part of me that had held so tightly onto Darren's memory – the part of me that refused to let me be with Edward – start to loosen its death-grip. It was painful, but the peace it brought was so much greater than the pain. I wouldn't have been able to be with Edward, love him in good conscience, when a part of me still mourned for someone else – I wouldn't have been able to live with myself. But now.....

I faintly, as if from a great distance, heard Darren's laugh. _Thank you_, I told him.

And then I let Darren go. I'd always love him.... in a way. But it wasn't a crime to move on, to find new love, and to be happy again. I could accept that now.

So I looked up at Edward, who was just starting to let his hands drop from my face – only a second had passed – and I covered his hands with my own, holding them in place. Edward's eyes became confused, and then, when he saw the peace in my eyes, the lack of conflict, they became fiercely hopeful. It made me smile. And I told him what I'd been wanting to tell him for a while. "I may have loved Darren," I said, my voice strong and sure, "but that doesn't mean that I don't love you."

It took a couple seconds for my words to sink in. But when they did, Edward's face broke into the most joyful, jubilant smile, and his eyes glowed in such an incredible way that it took my breath away.

And then he kissed me. I hadn't been expecting it, and the shock and sweetness of that kiss hit my body like a wave. But then I wound my fingers into his bronze, messy hair, feeling the softness of it, and I kissed him back.

After we broke apart, panting, we stared at each other for a while with a combination of surprise and happiness on our faces, then simultaneously started laughing. "I hadn't planned to do that," Edward remarked after we'd caught our breath. He stood in one smooth, lithe movement and held his hand out to me.

Thrilled that I could take his hand without feeling guilty, I grasped his hand, and Edward helped me to my feet. "That's all right," I said lightly. "I didn't mind at all." Then I sighed and smiled wryly. "I guess I should probably explain everything to your family," I said.

"Probably," Edward agreed. "Especially since you'll be staying with us for good. If you want to, of course," he added hastily, looking worried. "I didn't mean to -"

I cut him off by otherwise occupying his lips. "If you want me, I'm staying," I informed him.

Edward laughed. "Well, that's settled, then." A wicked gleam started to shine in his eyes. "You know," he said casually, taking my hand and playing with my fingers, "I used to be the fastest runner in my family." He grinned. "I'm curious to see if that's changed."

I grinned back at him. "Race you back to the house?" I asked.

Edward laughed and let go of my hand. "You're on."

We took off running, and I stayed neck and neck with him for a little while, then moved faster and got ahead by about ten feet. Edward compensated, and I ran faster. So did he. He was fast – but I knew I could go even faster. "I have a question," I called as we ran.

"And what might that be?" he asked.

"Are you one of those men who can't stand losing to a girl?"

Edward laughed. "No, but if I say yes, will you let me win?"

"Nope!" I said. And then I kicked into high gear. I shot past him like a bullet – behind me, he gasped in surprise, then started full out sprinting. He _was_ pretty fast – I was just faster. He was still five feet behind me when I jumped over the river that ran through the Cullens back yard. I tagged the window that made up the entire southern wall of the house just when he landed after jumping the river. I was grinning like a fool – this was the first time I'd really had fun in about a month. I could hear Emmett laughing from inside, and I grinned at him through the thick glass.

Edward walked to my side, a huge smile on his face. "You have no idea how good it feels to see you smile," he told me, wrapping his arm around my waist. I heard three gasps – Esme, Alice, and Rosalie were on the stairs, and had seen Edward's gesture. I smiled at them timidly as Edward and I walked toward the front door– all but Rosalie smiled back. Emmett was gaping open-mouthed. Jasper and Carlisle, who were playing chess, looked extremely pleased.

A sudden stab of nerves hit my stomach – I had to tell them what I was, and what my story was. Maybe not with as many details as I'd given Edward, but the general picture, at least.

As if he could feel my anxiety, Edward hugged me tightly. "It'll be fine," he promised. "Alice, Emmett, and Esme will still love you, Carlisle will ask you tons of questions, and when that's over, everything will go back to normal."

"Better than normal," I corrected, smiling at him. Then I took a deep breath. "All right," I said. "Let's get this over with."


	11. Well, the Cat's Out of the Bag Now

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Jasper's Point of View

_Finally_. _Thank_ _God_. I sighed in relief and relaxed for the first time in three weeks as Bella and Edward jumped across the river in our back yard. The pain that Edward had been radiating constantly ever since Bella had started avoiding him was gone, as were the conflicted, guilty, agonized feelings that had been present in Bella. Instead, Bella and Edward were throwing off happy, loving, and peaceful emotions that hit me like rays of sunlight, warming and relaxing me. An involuntary smile started to pull up the corners of my mouth, which had been – in Alice's opinion – turned downward in a scowl for too long.

Alice, Esme, and Rosalie, who had heard Bella and Edward's approaching footsteps, appeared on the staircase, watching Edward approach Bella with a smile the size of Texas on his face. "You have no idea how good it feels to see you smile," he told her. I could feel what he felt, and I knew that he was so happy he was about to burst. So was Bella. My smile became a grin when he wrapped his arm around Bella's waist and started leading her around the house to the front door.

Alice, Esme, and Rosalie gasped in unison, though their feelings were not quite the same. If it had been possible, Esme would have burst into tears when she saw her son and daughter – and that was how she thought of Edward and Bella; as her children– that joyful. A mother's happiness for her children is an incredible thing – no other love feels anything like it.

Alice was thrilled, too, that her brother and best friend had found what they had so desperately needed. Her happiness was lighter, more bubbly than Esme's was – fireworks rather than a deep, strong ocean current.

Emmett hadn't quite recovered from his shock. He loved Bella like a sister and Edward like a brother, and it had hurt him to see them in pain. He recognized now that they were happy, which made him happy in turn, but he still needed a minute to wrap his head around the whole concept of Bella and Edward.

But, as strong as everyone's emotions were at that moment, none of them could touch what Carlisle was feeling. It was staggering. He hid most of what he was feeling behind a mask that was merely pleased, but, like Esme, if he could have, he would have wept. I knew that he loved Edward fiercely – Edward had been his first companion, his first reprieve from his crushing loneliness, and he would never forget that, nor would he ever love anyone in exactly the same way he loved Edward. To be certain, he loved Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett – even me – very much. But Edward had been his first friend, son, confidant – the first one to share his vision. They had been together for eight decades, and there was a strong bond between them.

For as long as I'd known him, Carlisle had been worried about Edward – that he had changed him too young, that Edward would never find someone who meant as much to him as Esme did to Carlisle. Carlisle loved Edward enough to want that kind of love and happiness for him. He had been thrilled beyond description when Edward had found that love in Bella. It had broken his heart to see Edward hurting so deeply when Bella, for some reason, didn't seem to return his affection. Of course, that uncaring facade had never fooled me, and it had fallen away for everyone else when Edward and Bella had danced together. Carlisle hadn't understood why, since Bella _did_ love his son, she resisted him. Although he'd felt ashamed of it, and had told himself that he didn't know the whole story and wasn't being fair, he had been a little angry with Bella for hurting Edward.

But now all that anger was gone. He didn't have any room for any other emotion other than the deep, deep, joy he felt when he looked at Edward's radiant face. If Esme's happiness was an ocean current, the Carlisle's was an earthquake – felt deep in his core, shaking his entire being.

Rosalie was torn. She didn't like Bella, though she had gotten over most of her mistrust of the girl in the weeks that Bella had been here. She envied her – I wasn't sure I wanted to know why – and was angry at Edward for loving her. But she was also fond of Edward – in a love-hate sort of way. And, though as far as I could tell she was trying to root the feeling out, she was glad that he had found happiness, even though she wished he could have found it elsewhere.

I, too, was happy that Edward had found someone. He didn't look like the same person – the Edward I'd known for years had never looked that happy. He had been happy and content with his life, with our family, and had never felt like there was something missing. But he hadn't known this type of happiness before, and it had changed him, for the better, I thought. I considered Bella a..... well, not quite a friend – I had not known her nearly long enough for that. But I liked her. More importantly, Alice _loved _her, and that was what mattered. If Bella's being happy made Alice happy, then I was happy for Bella's happiness.

Not only could I sense every emotion in the room, every emotion in the room influenced _me_. I was grinning like an idiot, but it felt incredible to be surrounded by good emotions again. I turned to grin at Alice, and she darted across the room and yanked me into a tight embrace, which I returned, picking her up and twirling her around while she laughed. Carlisle got up, and ran to give Esme a hug and a kiss. Emmett's shocked expression faded and was replaced by his boyish, contagious grin.

But then I felt a quiver of nervousness – almost fear. I glanced up to scan the expressions of my family, but it wasn't coming from any of them. It was coming from outside the house – Bella, to be precise.

Edward noticed it too. I felt his emotions ripple with sympathy and the desire to comfort her. "It'll be fine," he soothed. "Alice, Emmett, and Esme will still love you, and Carlisle will ask you tons of questions, and when that's over, everything will go back to normal." I winced. I hoped not – _normal_ for the past few weeks had been exceedingly uncomfortable.

Bella seemed to agree with me. "Better than normal," she said firmly, her disquiet vanishing for a moment to be replaced by soaring love. Then her nerves returned. "All right," she muttered, "Let's get this over with."

My suspicious side – born from decades living in a war zone where everyone was a potential threat – started to ask some questions. Edward had said that Alice, Emmett, and Esme would _still_ love Bella, which implied that they would be learning something that they might have to love her in spite of. Carlisle would have questions about _what?_ Get _what_ over with? Everyone else had the same questions, though they were not as wary as I, and they all sat on the couches as Bella and Edward walked through the door.

Bella fidgeted slightly when she saw everyone's eyes on her, reminding me of myself. She cleared her throat, pushed her anxiety aside, and said, "Well, I might as well jump right in. I have something to tell all of you."

Alice laughed her silvery soprano laugh, and I almost smiled automatically in response. "I'd say you have _two_ things to tell us, Bella," she said with a significant glance at the arm Edward had wrapped around Bella's waist.

Bella smiled sheepishly, slightly embarrassed. "I thought that bit of news would be obvious."

Alice grinned. "Oh, it is. I just want to hear you say it out loud." This time I did smile. I love my lovely, mischievous wife.

Bella laughed out loud. "All right – I'm in love with Edward." She glanced up at Edward as she spoke, meeting his eyes, which made her sound very sincere. No one missed how happy those words made Edward look. Bella turned reluctantly back to Alice. "Happy?" she asked.

Alice smiled in satisfaction. "Yep," she said, and leaned back against me. I bent down and kissed her spiky hair and wrapped my arms around her without even thinking about it – it was like a reflex. Edward unconsciously tucked a stray strand of hair behind Bella's ear, and I smiled at the idea of Edward developing his own little reflexive reminders of how much he loved Bella.

"Now that Alice has had her fun," Carlisle began, his golden eyes warm, reflecting his emotions, "what did you want to tell us?"

Bella's smile vanished, and Edward squeezed her slightly in encouragement. She glanced around the room, and I recognized another way she was like me – even in a room full of nonthreatening people, both she and I scanned the room, taking in the positions of the people, possible exits – a fighter's habit. "You all know I'm not human," Bella stated. My eyes tightened. Ah. So _that's_ what this was about. I tensed, ready to spring into action, and became abruptly aware of the fact that Alice was in between Bella and me. I started to change that by putting myself in front of Alice, but Edward glanced at me, his eyes cold, his mouth a hard line, and his emotions distinctly hostile. I glared back at him. _What do you expect me to do?_ I demanded. But I forced myself to relax anyway. Alice patted my hand, silently reassuring me that everything was fine.

Bella continued. "I haven't told you what I am for two reasons: First, because I wasn't sure I trusted you at first, and then when I _did_ trust you, because technically I'm not supposed to tell you. But I think I'm going to be sticking around for a while," she said with a smile at Edward, "so you kind of _need _to know." She took a breath to keep going, but then glanced up at Edward. "Do you think I should explain, or just show them?" she murmured.

Edward deliberated for a moment, glancing at each of us. _Just show us_, I thought. _It's faster than explaining_. After he'd met everyone's eyes and listened to everyone's thoughts, he answered Bella. "Everyone's thinking along the same lines – just showing them would accomplish the goal and take up less time."

Bella's fear spiked, but you never would have known it by just looking at her. She nodded once, then wordlessly turned around and went back outside. The curiosity level rising, we all followed her. Bella and Edward walked out onto the front lawn. Edward lifted her chin with his finger and made her look him in the eye. "Everything will be fine," he promised. But I could feel the anxiety coming off him in waves, and I saw his sharp eyes scrutinize every face as he walked back to us.

Bella looked at all of us, too, her eyes unreadable, but her emotions worried and pleading. She sat down in the grass and closed her eyes. She took a deep, trembling breath.....

And then Bella was gone. In her place was a panther – but no panther had ever been this large. It was the size of a draft horse. Air rushed through my teeth as I hissed in surprise. I jerked Alice behind me and crouched defensively in front of her, snarling at the giant panther in the yard, warning in to not come any closer. Rosalie's reaction was similar to mine. Esme, Carlisle, Emmett, and Alice gasped, but didn't move.

The panther flinched, and lowered its head beseechingly. Its eyes focused on something over my shoulder, and it whined softly. But the only person behind me was Alice, whom I was protecting, and I snarled even more furiously, baring my teeth at the panther. If it took _one step_ toward Alice, I would kill it.

But then another snarl ripped through the air, and Edward was suddenly in front of me, mirroring my stance. "_Don't you touch her!_" he roared. His fury slammed into me like a tsunami, throwing me off guard for a second – I hadn't expected my anger to be matched. But I regrouped quickly, adjusting my stance so I would be able to attack Edward if need be. As much as the thought disturbed me, Alice came first. If something tried to hurt Alice, then I would stop it – even if I had to plow through Edward first. The panther behind Edward rose from its haunches, the hair on its back bristling, ready to come to Edward's defense. A low growl broke from between its exposed teeth, which were longer than I cared for.

Then Alice's hand was on my shoulder, gripping tightly – her nails cut through the fabric of my shirt. "Enough," she said, her voice snapping through the tense air like the crack of a whip. "Both of you, stop it – _now_." Slowly, both Edward and I straightened, and, as we did, the panther sat slowly back down – but it kept its eyes on me, just like I kept my eyes on it. I glared warningly, my teeth still bared. "Jasper!" Alice shouted. My head snapped around to face my wife. In all the years since Alice had found me, she had only raised her voice at me twice, and, even then, it had been under only the most extreme circumstances. For her to shout now was shocking..... and slightly hurtful. "Jasper," Alice repeated, her voice softer now, "that's Bella you're snarling at. She won't hurt me."

In the shock of seeing Bella change into a much more dangerous looking panther, I had forgotten that Bella loved Alice. I exhaled slowly, and looked at the panther – Bella. "I – I apologize," I said. "You caught me off guard." The panther – _Bella!_ – nodded apologetically.

Alice stepped out from behind me, and I quelled the urge to pull her right back, though it got harder as Alice walked up to Bella and peered up into Bella's panther face. Bella looked down at Alice somberly. The two stayed like that until Alice suddenly giggled, and reached up and tickled Bella under the chin, like she was a house cat, not a panther whose size dwarfed Alice. Bella looked shocked for a moment, then her lips curled up in the funniest way – a silly cat smile that made Alice dissolve into hysterical laughter. Edward laughed too, and the relief he emitted made me feel giddy.

Emmett, Esme, and Carlisle approached Bella next. Esme was still very surprised, but, as Edward had told Bella earlier, she still loved Bella. This shape shifting business was just a detail – it didn't matter much. Emmett, of course, was in awe – there was no trace of fear in him. Carlisle was, as usual, curious.

I was hesitant to get any closer to Bella – my mind wouldn't let me forget that she _did _still pose a threat. But also, that was why I _had_ to go closer; Alice was near her. So I did, feeling more and more on edge as I went. I felt Bella become wary as I came closer, but she didn't move. She seemed determined to prove herself trustworthy. Alice saw Bella tensing, and reached up to pat her massive shoulder. Even on her tiptoes, the could barely reach it. "Don't worry," she told Bella calmly. "He wouldn't hurt you." Her eyes flashed back to mine. I didn't need to feel the pleading edge to her emotions to know that hurting Bella would hurt Alice, too. I made myself calm down.

I was reading Bella's emotions carefully, wanting to know exactly what she was feeling – and wanting to get a heads up if she decided to attack. All I could sense was relief that everyone seemed to accept her, and an overwhelming desire to be trusted.

Curious despite myself, I walked in a circle around Bella, taking everything in. The thick muscle that covered her panther body. Her shining black fur. Her claws, retracted at the moment, but still barely visible. There were slightly raised ridges on her back that formed odd designs – scars. The fur that had grown over these scars was lighter in color than the surrounding fur – lead gray rather than pitch black. I had seen the few scars on her forelegs before. There were also scars on the right side of her ribcage – a place that, in her human form, had always been concealed by clothing. They were four parallel slashes – like something had clawed her.

I walked back around so I was in front of Bella again, and watched my family interact with her. Alice had scrambled onto her shoulders, and now sat on them like she was riding a horse. Her elbows were propped up on Bella's head, and she was laughing at Emmett, whom Bella had playfully swatted at with one enormous paw. Esme was running her fingers through the fur of Bella's left foreleg, and Carlisle was admiring her size. Edward was leaning up against Bella's side, and Bella looked away from Esme for a moment to nuzzle Edward's hair. He gave her a quick smile, and Bella smiled her cat smile in return. Their happy feelings made me smile again.

But not everyone was happy. Rosalie was standing far back, her face bone white and her hands clenched at her sides. I went to stand by her, noting the fear, anger, and worry that swirled through her. "She's dangerous," Rosalie said, her voice too low to carry to the others, as soon as I was within hearing range.

I agreed, but felt compelled to add, "So are you. So am I. It all depends on how she uses this. She's had many opportunities to harm us, and she hasn't yet. If harming us was her goal, then showing us what she really is wouldn't make sense – we would be fully aware of her capabilities. I'm not feeling anything threatening from her – she just wants us to not be afraid."

Rosalie started shaking her head before I'd even finished, her doubt thick in the emotional atmosphere. "She promised me the first night she came here that as soon as I thought she was a threat, I could tell her to leave and she would. I think I'm going to call in that favor."

I reacted in two ways – agreement, because Bella was dangerous, and alarm, because I knew that, if Rosalie reminded Bella of her promise, she would leave. And if she left, there was a good chance that Edward would go with her. Alice would be furious with Rosalie for taking away her friend and brother. Esme and Carlisle's hearts would break if they lost Bella, and it would be even worse if they lost Edward at the same time – like they probably would. Emmett would be sad, too, over the loss. All in all, our family would experience some sort of bereavement. With an internal sigh, I realized that, no matter how uncomfortable Bella made me feel, it would be better if she stayed. I would learn to trust her.

To Rosalie, I murmured, "I have to wonder how well you've thought that through."

Her annoyance gave me a mental slap even before she scowled at me. "What is that supposed to mean? Of course I've though this through! She's dangerous – she needs to go."

"Dangerous she may be," I countered, "but remember – Bella isn't just a strange girl Esme took in anymore. She's Edward's mate, Esme's daughter, and Alice and Emmett's friend. Sending her away now will have its consequences."

For all that she claimed to have thought her plan through, Rosalie obviously hadn't considered that. She paused, then whispered, "I don't want her to hurt my family."

Even though she didn't care for Bella, I knew that her reasons and emotions were sincere. "She won't," I reassured her, lightly laying my hand on her shoulder, "because this is her family now, too."

We were still watching Bella and the rest of our family when Bella lightly shrugged her large shoulders, hinting to Alice that she needed to get off. Edward and Esme backed up to give Bella space as Alice slid gracefully of Bella's back. As soon as Alice's feet had hit the ground, the giant panther vanished, leaving in its place Bella as we had all known her – human looking, with an unbeating heart and a scent that was fragrant, yet bordered on animal tangy. I guessed we knew why she smelled the way she did now.

Bella stood smoothly, clasped her hands behind her back, and ducked her head. Her nerves were back. "So..... I guess you know now. The name we have for ourselves is the Cats." She shifted uncomfortably on her feet, and Edward took her hand. Finally Bella raised her eyes. "It's your choice," she began, "but I would like to stay with all of you. I understand if you don't trust me now, but I swear that I will never hurt any of you."

We all looked to Carlisle. He was the head of our family – in the end, it would be up to him. He was smiling. "I don't think this presents a problem." A burst of fresh joy erupted in Bella at his words. Carlisle hugged a beaming Bella tightly, then held her at arms length, and gave her another fatherly smile. "Welcome to the family."


	12. History

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

They didn't care. They were letting me stay with them. I'd worried, after seeing Jasper and Rosalie's reactions, that they would ask me to leave, but they didn't. Rosalie had considered reminding me of my promise to leave when she told me too, but after a brief conversation with Jasper – which, though it was too quiet for the rest of the Cullens to hear, was audible to my Cat ears – she decided to wait and see if I was trustworthy. I hoped I could convince her that I was.

The others had taken my transformation into stride, Alice even going so far as to sit on my shoulders. Then, after I'd changed back into my In Between form, Carlisle had agreed to let me stay. It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down like Alice in my glee. I couldn't stop a grin from stretching across my face as I hugged Carlisle enthusiastically, then threw my arms around Edward, who was standing beside me. "_I can stay!_" I rejoiced quietly into his ear.

Edward laughed, and I knew that he was relieved, too. "I told you they wouldn't mind."

I remembered the stunned looks on the Cullens' faces when they'd seen me change with a mental wince. "Much," I murmured as Edward and I started to walk back to his house. Edward shrugged, allowing that.

The Cullen family was already seated in the family room when we walked in. I recognized the gleam in Carlisle's eyes easily – he had questions. Lots of them. I raised my hand before the inquisition started. "I have to warn you," I told him, "there will be some questions that I won't be able to answer. Too many of your kind would love the chance to wipe my people out."

Carlisle nodded, the light in his eyes dimming temporarily. "Of course," he said. "I will respect that, and not press for answers you feel you cannot give."

With that settled, Edward and I sat down on the couch opposite of Carlisle. And then the floodgates opened. "You say you call yourselves Cats?" Carlisle confirmed, and when I nodded, asked, "Then, since the word Cats in a broad term, I'm assuming that your kind can come in numerous forms?"

I nodded again. "Tigers, lions, mountain lions, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs, ocelots, panthers....." I shrugged. "A Cat can have a second form of any species of large cat."

Carlisle nodded, his face fascinated. "Do you have any idea how your kind came to be?"

I felt sadness fill my expression, and I sighed. This was one of the tragedies my people still felt. "Everyone believes differently. Some say we came from Creation, others say we evolved. I personally think that the universe is far too complicated to have just come from nothing, so I hold with Creationism. It's said that we did know for certain at one time, but the histories dating that far back were destroyed."

Carlisle frowned deeply. Apparently this bothered him as much as it did me. "How?"

"There was a war amongst my people," I began, but Carlisle interrupted me with another question.

"Forgive me, but why did this war start? I would like to know the whole story, if I can."

I nodded slowly, my mind on the past. "It was a long time ago," I murmured. "Two thousand years have passed since the war ended." I settled back against the sofa – this was a _long_ story. "And that question will also answer a lot more of your questions, I'm sure. The Cats had already explored the New World, Africa, and the East, and we had found the others of our kind in those places. We started communicating with each other, developing relationships with each other.

I rolled my eyes. "We were probably the first politicians. Anyway, obviously, certain prides were larger and more influential than others. One of the most influential was the Allen pride, which was led by a woman named Shaylynn." I fell into the rhythm of the story easily, having heard it thousands of times. "Shaylynn was very compassionate, and one day she was running alone when she heard a scream. She followed the sound," I hesitated. This was where the story started to touch on a sensitive topic. I forced myself to continue "and found a vampire who was draining a human man." Carlisle and Esme winced, and Edward looked down. I went on. "The Cats knew that vampires existed, of course, but they avoided them at all costs. Shaylynn had never seen one before, and she had _definitely_ never seen one killing a person. She reacted, perhaps too rashly, attacked the vampire, and killed him."

I briefly scanned the Cullens' faces. Alice, and Emmett looked like they were just listening to an interesting story, but Rosalie looked like she had tasted something sour. Jasper's face was unreadable. Carlisle, Esme, and Edward looked a tad pained, but I kept going. "The vampire had broken his victim's neck when he'd seen Shaylynn, so there was no way to help him, but Shaylynn never forgot how helpless humans were, how there was no way for them to defend themselves against those who hunted them.

"Her compassion for the humans led her to propose something unheard of – organizing the Cats to protect the humans who lived within their territory." I felt awed just thinking about – one woman's decision to do what she thought was right, no matter the cost – a decision that had permanently shaped my life. "Her pride could see the situation through her eyes, and supported her, as did many others, but she was met with incredible opposition from some. They didn't believe that what Shaylynn had proposed was best for them. They opposed it so strongly that they began to actively stop Shaylynn's pride and the prides that supported her from doing what they had proposed." I paused, thinking about how to word my next statement. "Shaylynn's enemies..... well, when they tried to stop the Cats who believed in what Shaylynn stood for, they killed many. So many that Shaylynn was forced to fight back – defensively, at first; she was trying to _minimize_ killing, not increase it. But those who opposed her kept attacking, until finally Shaylynn had to strike back or see everyone who believed as she did slaughtered."

I shivered slightly. "For twenty years the fighting raged, with more and more combatants coming in from all over the world to each side. Our people still have not completely recovered from the massive drop in Cat population. But finally Shaylynn convinced her enemies that they were going to force our people into extinction. A treaty was drawn up, and the fighting stopped, but..... at some point during the war, some of Shaylynn's enemies thought that she was hiding underground, in the place where my people keep our records and histories. They set fire to the library. The Cats who guard that place managed to save most of the records, but not the oldest manuscripts, which were stored farthest from the entrance."

After I finished, the Cullens stared at me for a long minute before Carlisle recovered enough to ask another question. "Why did so many join to fight? It seems like the war should have been between only Shaylynn's supporters and her enemies."

"So many fought for a few reasons," I explained. "First, as word of Shaylynn's decision spread, many fought on Shaylynn's side because they felt that her enemies were trying to take away her free will, and the free will of her supporters. My people value choices – take them away, and things get nasty, fast. Others fought because they believed in what Shaylynn said. And still others _dis_believed it, and fought against it." I smirked. "They were kind of nosy – they wanted to make sure the side they supported won."

"_I've_ got a question," Rosalie snarled flatly from where she sat in a corner. "What gave this Shaylynn person the right to kill vampires just because of what they were? How does that make her any better than the vampires she killed?"

I nodded slowly, my eyes meeting Rosalie's. "That was a major issue – how we could avoid becoming as calloused as the ones we were trying to stop. Three years after the war ended, Shaylynn addressed that, and created laws that those who intended to fight had to swear to uphold. The laws outline when a kill is sanctioned – we can't just go around killing any vampire we come across; that's murder, and is punished by death. Certain circumstances have to be present."

"That is a little better," Jasper murmured, his eyes sharp on my face, "but you left half of her question unanswered – what gave Shaylynn the right to kill vampires just because they were vampires? That is the only way most know how to live."

"Now," I corrected. "There were many covens like this one at that time – most knew that this was an option." I looked at their stunned faces. "Did you think you were the first ones?" I asked softly.

"We did," Carlisle responded, hope flaring in his eyes. He leaned forward intently. "But there are others? How many? Do you know where?"

Jasper met my eyes, his face grim. I knew that he'd caught the word in my statement that made all the difference. "_Were_ many covens like this one," he repeated, his voice low. "What happened to the others?"

"They were killed," I replied, my voice nearly a growl. "The Volturi felt threatened by them, felt that they were growing too great in number, so they had them killed. And word about them faded away because the vampires who _had_ known that they existed decided that it would be safer to keep their mouths shut."

I hated to see the grief that my words put in Carlisle's eyes. He leaned back wearily and put his hand over his eyes. "As much as I hate to admit it, that _does _sound like something Aro would do," he sighed.

There was a moment of silence while we mourned for the vampires that had been killed for being different before Carlisle continued his questioning. "I noticed that your heart beats when you are in your Cat form, but it doesn't when you are like this. Why?"

"When I'm my Cat form I'm a panther, an animal," I explained. "A very large, strong, fast, intelligent animal, but an animal nonetheless. My heart beats when I'm in my most human form, too." I shuddered. "But I try to avoid that form. I've probably only used it three times."

Alice cocked her head. "Why?"

I grimaced. "Because seeing through human eyes, hearing through human ears, and running with human legs is the most frustrating thing in the world, especially when I'm used to having such sharp senses, and being this fast and strong. It makes me feel blind, deaf, slow, weak....." I shuddered again. "And my heart doesn't beat now because I'm....." This was complicated. "I'm not..... _definite_, I guess. I'm not quite a panther, not quite a human – I'm just..... in between. Not exactly anything."

Carlisle nodded excitedly, then started to ask another question, but paused. "I wonder," he started slowly, "if I might ask a more personal question." I nodded, and he continued. "Why were you hunting the three vampires when you first came here?"

I breathed in deeply through my nose. Edward put his arm around my waist in silent comfort. "They murdered my sister," I said finally. "Sarah. She was eight."

Esme, Alice, and – to my shock – _Rosalie_ gasped in horror. "I'm so sorry, Bella," Esme whispered, coming to sit on my other side and giving me a hug.

"I thought you said that there had to be certain circumstances for a killing to be sanctioned," Rosalie stated, but not cruelly, which was progress. "Is revenge one of them?"

"No," I answered. "It isn't, which is why I was kicked out of my pride for deciding to hunt them." I bared my teeth in a feral smile. "My mother was _not_ pleased."

Rosalie's dark gold eyes hardened. "So let me get this straight – your sister was murdered, and your mother – your _sister's_ mother – punished you for wanting to kill the killers?"

I felt my expression harden to match Rosalie's. Finally, it looked like we had something in common – the extreme dislike of my mother. "My mother, Renee, is not known for her soft heart," I explained.

Rosalie shook her head sharply in disgust. "I can see why." I studied Rosalie curiously. I hadn't expected this – this common ground. It was like she knew just how badly Sarah's death had hurt me, understood that, really, I hadn't had a choice but to hunt her killers. Suddenly it clicked in my head – she knew what it was to want revenge. To want to tear someone limb from limb for what they had done. I blinked, then tucked that piece of information away. I would ask Edward about it later.

Then Emmett decided that it was his turn to ask the questions. "So," he said, leaning forward. "Were you raised to be a warrior from birth, or something?"

I laughed. "No 'or something' needed – I was definitely raised to fight from birth." I decided to really blow his mind. "The first toy a Cat child receives as a baby is a wooden dagger – their parents teach them how to hold it properly almost before they can walk and talk."

Emmett's eyes widened. "That's insane. It's like – I don't know, something out of a movie or a book." He adopted an ominous tone. "The warrior tribes who live in the deepest forests." Then he snickered. "That's awesome."

My smile twisted, became slightly bitter. Sure, it sounded cool – unless you were the child whose arm had been broken in training. Unless you were the child whose body was covered with bruises after a day of practicing with wooden swords against older children who'd had more practice. I shook off the dark thoughts. The children have bright moments, too, I reminded myself. Games, and singing, and dancing, parents and friends who love them and know them inside and out and know exactly how to give comfort. I was just indulging in a brief moment of self-pity because I hadn't really had all those things.

The questions continued well into the night. I explained my Marks – all the Cullens seemed just as aghast as Edward that I had accepted them – and I told them about how Cat children are raised. I elaborated on what kind of training I had received, earning Emmett's awe and Jasper's look of respect. I told them about Brian, Nicole, Brittany, Marisol, and Ana, the few friends I had. I told them a few of our stories and legends, which Carlisle enjoyed immensely. Upon Alice's insistence, I even sang a few songs that I had grown up with, smiling at the surprised look on Edward's face when he realized that I had a pretty voice. Emmett, ignoring the hard set of Edward's mouth, asked for stories of a different kind – he wanted to hear about some of the fights I'd been in, and about how I'd received my collection of scars. Jasper even asked a few quiet yet insightful questions about Shaylynn's laws.

Rosalie only spoke once more that night. "So," she'd asked, flipping her blond hair over her shoulder, "do all Cats live like your pride does?"

I shook my head. "Only about a third of us fight. The rest have various lifestyles."

"Such as?" Carlisle inquired.

I shrugged. "Some live much like your family does – in the human world, moving when it becomes necessary to keep the secret. They are doctors, scientists, authors, teachers, politicians..... whatever they want to be. Others live more like the majority of your kind, minus the killing. They are nomads, constantly moving in unpopulated areas." An angry grimace twisted my expression. "A very, very few live _exactly_ like the majority of your kind – hunting included." I took a deep, calming breath. "Prides like mine try to avoid them – we..... _disagree_ frequently, and people usually get hurt."

After I'd answered that last question, the individual Cullens resumed the activities they had been in the middle of when I'd told them what I was. Carlisle and Jasper restarted their game of chess, and Emmett declared that he would play the winner. Esme spread some blueprints out on the floor near the glass wall, laid on her stomach with her ankles crossed in the air, and started to pour over them, humming an old song. Alice and Rosalie looked at some pictures of a recent fashion show on the Internet, and started debating whether they preferred the designer's latest work, or if they liked last season's clothing better.

Edward took my hand and towed me to his piano, tugging me down beside him on the bench. At first he just played random songs, but then he paused, his head cocked slightly. Almost absently, he played three notes. Then, his eyes bright with inspiration and his face intent with concentration, he started to add to the three notes, weaving a melody that took my breath away. I held very still, not daring to move or speak because I feared that any distraction would break the spell that seemed to surround Edward while he composed. After only a few minutes, he was finished. He played the new song through two times, then smiled brilliantly. "Do you like it?" he asked.

I had to unfreeze myself before I could answer. "It's perfect," I breathed. "Absolutely beautiful. Amazing."

"Beautiful," he repeated, his voice gentle. His hand stroked my face, shaped itself around my cheek. "Just like the girl who inspired it."

If my heart had been beating, I'm sure I would have blushed crimson. Still, I couldn't help but feel happy that Edward thought I was beautiful – no matter how delusional I thought that statement was.

But before I could think of a reply, Alice saved me – sort of. "Yes!" she cried, jumping up from where she sat at the computer. "The sun will be shining tomorrow! We can't go to school!" she sang.

Emmett made a show of sighing dramatically in relief, and Rosalie, Jasper, and Edward smiled widely.

Carlisle smiled, too. "I'll call the hospital and tell them that I'm not feeling well," he said, and went upstairs.

Emmett's eyes were eager. "Can we go hunting at Goat Rocks? We've stayed around here for the past month, and I am _dying_ to get my hands on a grizzly."

Esme laughed. "That would be nice. I think we can arrange it."

But I was frowning at Alice. How had she known all of a sudden that it was going to be sunny tomorrow? She noticed my look and frowned at Edward. "You didn't tell her?" she asked disapprovingly, and, when Edward shook his head, rolled her eyes and turned to me. "What my beloved brother apparently neglected to tell you is that I can see the future – except for you. With you, I'm totally blind." And she seemed very disgruntled about that fact.

I blinked, but accepted this fairly easily. With each new power I learned about, it became less and less difficult to get past the initial surprise. But I was still startled when Alice suddenly turned back to Edward with a puzzled frown on her face. "Why aren't you coming?" she asked him. "And what are you doing instead? I can't see a thing."

Edward glanced at me with a smile before he answered her. "Well, I'm not that thirsty, so I figured I'd stay home with Bella – which is, by the way, why you can't see me."

Alice thought about that for a second, then frowned again. "Well, I guess that makes sense – it explains why I never saw Emmett getting fighting lessons." Then she shrugged. "Well, I'm going to change. See you two later." And she dashed up the stairs, with the rest of the Cullens except for Edward following her.

I turned to Edward. "We're staying home, huh?" I confirmed.

Edward nodded. "If you want to," he added. I had a feeling that he would always add that, would always leave the choice to me.

However, the idea of me and Edward being alone for the day was not one I had a problem with. I snuggled into his chest. "Sounds good to me."


	13. Got You

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

Edward's family left to go hunting as the sun was beginning to rise, leaving Edward and me alone in the giant house. I listened for a moment to uncharacteristic quietness that now filled the air – usually someone was _always_ doing something, but now all was still. It was different. It was _nice_ – I had started to miss peace and quiet.

I smiled at Edward and twined my arms around his waist. "So," I asked, "are we doing anything particular today?" I didn't really care – as long as I was with Edward, I was satisfied.

Edward grinned and brushed his fingers along my jawline. "Actually, yes," he admitted. "I wanted to show you something – I place I like to go to when I need quiet."

I smiled wider. It was good to know that his thoughts were on the same track as mine. "Where is this place?"

His opened the door and led me into the yard. "North," he answered casually. "Deep in the woods – I don't think I've ever heard a human come by. Follow me."

I sighed, mock-disappointed. "Shame we can't race again."

Edward chuckled. "I don't see why it would be fun – you already know that you'd win."

I laughed and kissed him. I doubted that I would ever get used to the feeling his lips against mine gave me. "I might let you win, just to change it up," I told him cheerfully. He just laughed. I gestured forward. "Lead the way."

He took my hand and started to run. We weren't running fast, but I was content with the leisurely pace – I was fine with prolonging the moment. He led me North and East, over a few hiking trails before we reached the heart of the Olympic forest. Then we ran for about three minutes, until the gloomy sunlight that shone through both the clouds and the trees started to lighten up ahead. I glanced at Edward's face, my eyebrows raised.

"Yes," he said, answering my silent question. "That's where we're going."

We slowed to a walk five feet away from the brighter spot. Then we passed through a wall of ferns and were in a meadow. I gasped softly as I looked around. The meadow was perfectly circular, and all around the edge of the meadow, ferns and vines created a wall between this amazing place and the rest of the forest, making the spot fell completely isolated from the real world. It was separate, like another dimension, like Edward's own little world. A perfect getaway. To the east, not even thirty feet away, I could hear a river's water rushing over rocks. Wildflowers grew in Edward's meadow, some of which were small blue flowers whose petals started out almost white in the center of the flower, then gradually faded to indigo at the outer edges. Those were my favorites, but pink, yellow, and white flowers grew there as well. I walked to the center of the meadow, feeling the lush grass soft beneath my bare feet, but turned back to look at Edward, to see why he wasn't coming with me.

He wasn't looking at me. His face was turned upward, and his eyes were trained on the clouds, which had been thinning since we'd set out from his house. They looked as though they would disappear entirely soon. As Alice had predicted, it was going to be sunny. I suddenly realized why Edward was watching the sky, why his face looked tense and worried. When the sun came out, when its rays hit his skin, they would break into prisms on the hard, diamond-like surface, and his exposed skin – he had worn a sleeveless white shirt today – would start to sparkle like a piece of crystal. He was worried about my seeing him like that. I had been raised to fight vampires, after all – perhaps he feared that such a clear reminder of what he was would make me fear or hate him. As if that were possible.

"Edward," I murmured. His eyes flashed to mine instantaneously. I held my hand out to him, but didn't move any closer – in order for him to take it, he would have to step out of the shade, and into the meadow, where the sun would shine on him when the clouds dissipated. His eyes tightened, and he didn't move. The sun broke through the clouds then, warming my back, shoulders, and the top of my head, making the choice that much more glaring. Now, as soon as he stepped forward, he would begin to sparkle. There would be no time to prepare me, as if I needed preparation. "I've seen vampires in the sun before," I reminded him softly. I didn't drop my hand; the invitation was still open.

Edward's lips twitched up into a sad half-smile. "But not _this _vampire," he whispered.

"The only thing the sun will do is make you even more beautiful," I retorted gently. I beckoned him forward, but still he hesitated. I sighed, then made my face and voice teasing. "If you come out, I'll dance with you," I promised, dangling a reward in front of him. "Any dance you like." I saw immediately that my persuasion was working – Edward's eyes lit up. But he stayed where he was. I smiled wider, and spun gracefully in a circle, making my hair fan around me. When I was facing him again, his lips were parted slightly. "Don't you want to dance with me?" I coaxed.

Edward tried to keep from smiling, and failed. "You don't play fair," he accused.

"Never said I did," I replied, then dropped my playful tone. "Edward," I whispered, "I trusted you with what I am. Trust me with what you are."

Apparently, Edward needed no more of my attempts at persuasion, because he met my eyes, fresh resolve on his face, and stepped out into the sun. I only just managed to keep myself from gasping. He was beautiful. The sun hit him, and bounced off his smooth skin as millions of tiny prisms. He looked more angelic than ever. Edward closed the distance between us, and took my still extended hand. He looked into my eyes, nervous again. "So," he began, but he didn't know how to continue, so he fell silent.

I was quick to reassure him. I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a soft, lingering kiss. "I told you the sun would only make you more beautiful," I breathed, unable to look away from him. He was glorious. Exquisite. Miraculous. Stunning. Dazzling. Perfect. A thousand adjectives ran through my head, none of them fitting properly. He was all of them and more. More than words could ever express.

Edward placed my hand on his shoulder, and placed his hand on my waist. "You promised me a dance," he reminded me.

I smiled and took his other hand in mine. "And which dance are we dancing?" I asked.

Edward's eyes became unbearably soft. They seemed to be melting my heart. "A waltz," he answered in a whisper. He traced the outline of my lips with one cool fingertip. "Just a waltz. Slow. I want to feel you in my arms, look into your eyes." His lips twitched. "Although, we don't have music."

I was too mesmerized by his face to be able to smile at his humor. "Who needs music?" I asked, my light tone slightly marred my breathlessness.

He pulled me closer. "Who, indeed?"

And then we started to dance. This time was different from the last. The last time we'd danced, it had been fire, desperate longing. Now it was gentler, reveling rather than craving, but no less strong. We were basking in the happiness that we both felt now, instead of yearning for the joy that had eluded us the last time we'd danced – had it only been yesterday? It felt like longer – so much had happened.

Edward and I danced for five minutes before he reluctantly let me go. He took my hand and bowed over it before lightly touching his lips to my knuckles in a gesture that had been lost to time. His eyes flicked up to mine from beneath his lashes and smiled, his gaze so scorching that it made me shiver slightly. He straightened and, keeping our hands entwined, touched my cheek with the back of his hand. "Thank you for the dance," he murmured.

I smiled. "Anytime."

Edward laughed exuberantly. "I might take you up on that," he stated mildly, then wrapped his arms around me. "This is the only thing I had planned for today," he remarked. "Was there something you wanted to do?"

I thought about that. What did I want to do? As I thought, I noticed that I was craving lightness. So much had happened in the past few days – monumental, heavy stuff. I wanted light. I wanted bubbly. I wanted fun.

I wanted to play. "I have an idea," I declared.

Edward smiled brilliantly. "Yes?"

I felt a coy little smile curve the corners of my lips up. Without saying a word, I wrapped my arms around Edward's neck and kissed him for all I was worth. My fingers twisted into his hair, and his hands slid up my back. We kissed recklessly, passionately, until I was about to loose my focus on my bright idea. So I pulled away, and leaned in to whisper something in Edward's ear.

"Tag," I breathed, then slithered out of Edward's arms.

His face was satisfyingly blank, his eyes glazed. "Er," he rasped. "What?"

I couldn't restrain a giggle as I turned and ran into the woods. "You're it!" I called over my shoulder. For a moment, I heard no sound of a pursuit, and I started to worry. Had I hurt his feelings? Had I made him angry? But before I could turn around and beg for forgiveness, Edward started to laugh, and I heard him plunge into the trees after me.

An undignified squeal of excitement burst through my control, and I ran faster – but not so fast that Edward wouldn't be able to catch me. I _wanted_ him to catch me – like he'd said earlier, what was the fun of the game if you always won? I let him get right on behind me, close enough that he started to lunge, trying to tag me. I dodged his first two attempts, then intentionally moved too slow, and his hand touched my side, winding rapidly around my waist and surprising me by quickly pulling me to his chest. His lips met mine for an instant, then he was running away, grinning broadly as he shouted "You're it!" back at me.

I grinned widely and let him get a bit of a head start before I started chasing him. He was more inventive than I had been, quickly taking the chase up the trees, leaping from bough to bough like a squirrel. We bounced off the trees like ping-pong balls until I guessed his next move and sprang in a direction that made me collide with him in midair. We fell to the ground in a heap, uninjured, and the fall had left me on top of him. I grinned triumphantly down at his startled face before I kissed him briefly but ardently. Then I was up and running, laughing like an idiot.

It was while I was running through the forest with Edward chasing me, while I was giggling like a fool, but unable to care, that I ran across a scent trail. That in itself wasn't unusual – there were thousands of scent trails in this forest. What mattered was the particular scent I had run across.

I came to a screeching halt, my eyes springing wide open. I inhaled deeply, sharply, smelling the scent I hadn't thought I would ever smell again. It had been weeks since I'd last smelled it, but it was as familiar as Edward's scent. Just as familiar, but not _nearly_ as loved. Because this _particular_ vampire scent was seared into my memory by events that still made me shudder – I would never forget it. It was them. The ones I'd been tracking when I'd found the Cullens. Sarah's murderers. My hand started to shake. Suddenly, I wasn't happy Bella, the Bella who had fallen in love with Edward and had found a home with the Cullens. I was the furious, grief-stricken Bella who had been searching for these monsters in the first place. And I was on the hunt. A snarl curled my lips up over my teeth. They would not escape me – not this time.

All of this had taken only a second. Before I could take even one step forward in my renewed hunt, Edward was there. At first, his face was just as carefree as mine had been. But then he saw the expression on my face. His eyes widened in fear. The next second, he had taken my hands in his. "Bella?" he asked anxiously, "What happened?" He sniffed the air slightly, his self-preservation instinct taking over, and noticed the scent. His already wide eyes widened even more. He remembered the scent. He knew who it belonged to.

"_Them_," I hissed unnecessarily. He knew. I yanked my hands out of his and started to follow the scent, but he grabbed my arm and stopped me.

"What are you doing?" he gasped. I didn't bother to answer. "You could get killed!"

I snorted harshly. "There's only three of them," I reminded him coldly. I was wasting time.

Edward's face was whiter than usual. "That's even worse! You can't expect me to just let you go and then just sit and wonder if you'll ever come back!"

"I most certainly can," I replied, my voice tight with impatience. "I will kill them – you can't stop me."

"I know that!" he snapped. "I'm asking you to_ wait!_"

"_No_," I flat-out snarled. "What if it had been Alice? Forget for a second that Jasper would tear anyone who hurt her into tiny pieces. What if it had been Alice who had been murdered? What if you'd heard her being murdered, _felt_ her being murdered, because you could read her mind? What if you'd run to save her, but had been too late? What would you be doing right now?"

"_Please_, Bella!" Edward begged. "Emmett, Jasper, and I can help! Just wait for an hour – if I call them, everyone can be back by then! _Please_ don't do this to me!"

And despite how much I wanted to kill the nomads, I couldn't help being shaken by Edward's beseeching voice. He was pleading with me. He would be hurt if I went after them now. And I found that, as angry as I was, I could not refuse. "Fine," I said flatly, and turned run back to the Cullen house. "One hour." At least it wasn't going to rain any time soon. If the Cullens weren't back by the hour, I would go alone – I _would not _risk them getting away again.

Edward's Point of View

The atmosphere of the day had changed drastically and suddenly – one second Bella and I had been playing, and the next, Bella had been snarling at me, her eyes dark with fury. I'd called my family on the way back to the house, and when Bella and I had arrived, she had moved to stand, her back and shoulders stiff, by the glass wall, and hadn't moved until my family had burst through the front door. Then, without a glance at me, she had stormed up the stairs. "Let me know when you've made my choice for me," she'd spat. A split second later, the door of her room slammed shut. I winced and thought of what she'd said yesterday. _My people value choices – take them away, and things get nasty, fast_. Nasty was an understatement. It was killing me to have her so angry at me, but I had to make sure she was safe before I made sure she was happy. Softly, I explained the situation to those who hadn't heard my hasty conversation with Carlisle.

Carlisle's face was grim._ I can't blame her for wanting to kill them_, he admitted to me, ashamed of himself for being what he considered calloused. _Even if I wish she wouldn't, I understand. I wish I could say that I wouldn't do the same. _

Jasper was nodding to himself. He met my eyes seriously. _You have to let her go_, he told me.

"I _can't!_" I breathed. "What if she gets hurt? What if they _kill_ her?" I felt sick just thinking that.

Jasper shook his head. _Have you forgotten her Marks? I'd be willing to bet that she's been up against worse than three vampires. She'll be fine. _

"Let her go," Rosalie said suddenly. We all turned to stare at her. She continued silently. _She will _never_ be able to rest until she finishes it. She might have been able to let it go the first time, because she had no way to find them after she lost their scents, but not now. She has to finish it._ In her mind, I could see the face of Royce Kind II, her former fiancée – the man who had, with a group of his friends, raped and murdered her.

"That doesn't change the fact that she could get _hurt!_" I cried, forgetting to keep my voice down.

Rosalie cocked her head, thinking. _Ask her to let us come along – not to help; she'll want to kill them on her own – to be there just in case, so that if something happens, help will be close by_, she suggested.

Well, that was something. Not what I wanted – which was for Bella not to go at all – but all I was going to get. I considered briefly then dashed upstairs to Bella's room. I knocked lightly on the door. There was no answer. I cringed slightly – she must be very angry. "Bella," I called, "I know you're angry, but we have an idea." Still no answer. I decided to play to her fury. "Bella, you're only letting them get farther away by not answering!" Again, I was met only by silence. Alarm started to build in me. It didn't make sense for Bella to not respond to that jab. "Bella, open this door!" I said, and, when there was again no reply, I turned the handle – and found the door locked. I swore fiercely and forced the door open with my shoulder, then froze.

Bella's room was empty, and the window was wide open.


	14. Burn

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or its characters. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

I sneaked out of my window – I knew that Edward would argue with his family about letting me go after the vampires who'd killed my sister. I knew that I had a little time before e came up to my room. How much time, though, I wasn't certain of. So I ran as fast as I could, which meant that I had to use my Cat form. But I didn't mind that – I wanted to use my Cat form to kill the vampires, anyway. I wanted them to make the connection between Sarah and me. I wanted them to know that their actions had caught up with them. I lost some time because I had to go back to the meadow and find the trail from there, but then it was easy work to track them.

When I could tell I was getting close – their scents were very fresh – I shifted out of my Cat form. My panther body was very large, and therefore had a very large heart, which, consequently, had a very loud heartbeat. To their sensitive ears, it would sound like someone pounding on a drum, and I didn't want to tip them off. I eased forward, low to the ground, in my In Between form, the form that didn't need to breath and didn't have a pulse.

When I saw them, for the first time in person, a red mist painted my vision. My jaw and fists clenched, and I heard Sarah screaming in my mind. My whole body screamed for release, screamed to attack the ones I had hated for so long. I almost charged them then and there. It took all my self-control to keep myself hidden, to keep waiting, to assess the situation. The three vampires were in a clearing about the size of a football field. They were grouped together for now, but I could hear the black-haired male ask the brown-haired one – the one who had killed Sarah – where he wanted to meet up; they were about to go their separate ways to hunt. My every muscle tensed, and I could feel my canine teeth and fingernails extending as my body, anticipating the fight to come, started to shift. I tightened my hold on myself. _Wait_.

The brown-haired male decided that they would meet in Vancouver. They all stood. My lips curled up over my long, sharp Cat teeth. _Wait_. I leaned forward. _Just a moment longer_. The three broke apart, the female heading East, the black-haired male going North, and the brown-haired male turning to the South. They moved the perfect distance apart from each other.

_NOW!_ I exploded from the trees, taking on my Cat shape instantaneously in midair, a panther's war-scream tearing from my throat. The black-haired male didn't have a chance to turn around before I landed on his back. As I landed, I dug my front claws into his shoulders, my hind claws into his back, and sank my teeth into his neck. Then I pulled in every direction – down with both sets of claws, and up with my teeth, dismembering the vampire in one motion like Brian had taught me. He didn't even have time to scream.

All of this passed in a millisecond – I had been trained to be fast. I was on to the female before she could turn around toward the sound of tearing vampire flesh. I ripped her apart in the same way. Then it was just me and the true murderer. I'd killed the others first, quickly and painlessly, because they hadn't touched Sarah. They just hadn't stopped him. A growl rumbled deep in my chest as the male whirled to see the fate of his coven. I scrutinized his face, the look of shock that quickly changed into fury. I crouched low, coiling to spring. I had killed the others quickly – this one would not be so lucky.

He bolted into the forest, and I charged after him. I rather liked the idea of chasing him down – just like he had chased my sister. It was _his_ turn to feel the fear of the prey. He wasn't as fast as Edward; definitely not as fast as me. I caught up to him easily, and swiped his right leg with my claws, drawing four deep gashes from his knee to his ankle. He stumbled, then righted himself with a snarl and crouched defensively.

I started to circle him, the fur on my back and shoulders bristling. I wished that I could have spoken to him. _How does it feel?_ I would have asked, _to know that something's going to kill you? How does it feel to be the weak one?_

He tired of my circling soon – he lunged at me. I skipped aside and tore off his arm with my teeth, ignoring his piercing scream. He hissed at me and tried to snap at my neck. I rewarded his effort with a vicious slap – which gave him four ragged slashes down the left side of his face to match the ones on his leg. While he was distracted by the pain, I took his other arm.

Then, off in the distance, I heard someone scream my name. Reflex reaction – my eyes flicked in the direction of the sound for just a split second.

But a split second was all he needed. I had torn off his arms, but he still had his legs, and he used them to propel himself at my neck, and buried his teeth in my throat.

I felt his razor sharp teeth slice into my skin, and I felt his venom enter my bloodstream. I felt cold – I needed to end this before the venom could make me loopy. I managed to hook my claws in his stomach and pried him off. His teeth slashed my neck from my throat up to my chin, but I got him off. I didn't waste any more time – I gripped his neck in my teeth and decapitated him. And not a moment too soon – I could feel the side effects of the venom already. I had been bitten several times before, and my body had developed a resistance to vampire venom, but his bite had deposited a _lot _of venom into my bloodstream. So much that I was already starting to feel dizzy.

So I gathered his remains in my mouth and carried them back to the clearing where I had dismembered the others, heaping all the pieces into a pile when I got there. I was starting to see double, but I had to start the fire. Luckily, I found a rock after only a quick stagger through the woods. It was ridiculously difficult to drag one of my claws across the rock to create a spark – probably because the rock kept blurring and moving in my vision – but I got the fire started.

I turned away from the fire and started to walk back to the tree line, but when I was about half-way there, I realized that I couldn't feel my feet anymore. But that was all right, my woozy mind concluded, because I couldn't see straight anyway. If I went into the forest, I'd probably run face-first into a tree. I shook my head – there was this annoying roaring in my ears, and it wouldn't go away.

That was about when I lost my Cat shape. I stood, in my most human form, swaying dizzily on my feet. The trees blurred and swam into a green mess before my eyes. It was hot, I realized. Was I standing too close to the fire? It was _really_ hot. The roar in my ears became deafening, and then I passed out.

Edward's Point of View

She was gone! I'd left her alone for_ one minute_, and she'd disappeared. Well, at least I knew where she was going – sort of. I could still help her. _If_ I could get there in time. I didn't go back downstairs. "Jasper! Emmett! Carlisle!" I shouted as I jumped out of Bella's bedroom window and took off into the forest, following the trail Bella had left behind. I heard everyone start running after me. It took us only a few minutes to reach the point where Bella's scent crossed the scents of the nomads.

"Bella!" Alice shouted. She barely got the word out before Jasper's hand clapped over her mouth.

"Quiet!" he hissed. "If she's fighting them, we don't want to distract her!"

Alice's eyes widened – she'd forgotten about that. Then we all started running along the combined trails of Bella and the nomads. We hadn't gone far when Jasper lifted his head and sniffed the air. He cracked a smile, but before Alice and I could scream at him – why was he smiling when Bella was in danger?! – we, too, noticed the smell that hung in the air. Sickly sweet and cloying – the smell of burning vampires.

_Looks like Bella didn't need help after all_, Jasper observed, a smug hint to his thoughts – he'd been right earlier.

I felt the tight coil of nerves in my chest relax. Bella was safe. But then my family and I broke through the trees surrounding a clearing – and saw Bella's crumpled form lying on the ground, smelled the blood that had painted her throat and chest red, and soaked the front of her black tank top. No one needed to hold their breath – her blood smelled good, but had an animal edge to it that wasn't appetizing. But thirst was the farthest thing from my mind.

"_NO!_" I roared, and ran as fast as I could to where Bella lay. "Bella," I gasped, noting the sound of her heartbeat with some relief. But it was fast and erratic, and her breath came unevenly and shallowly. I reached out to look for the source of the blood, but when I touched her neck, I hissed and automatically jerked my hand back.

_Edward?_ Carlisle's calm, methodical voice asked as he knelt beside Bella and me, _What's wrong? _

"She's burning up," I breathed. Her temperature had to be over a hundred and ten. At least. My voice shook. "Carlisle, her temperature's so high."

Carlisle also started to examine her neck, but, having been warned, he only flinched slightly when he felt her impossible temperature. Carefully, he turned her head, and we both felt a fresh wave of shock when we saw the healing bite marks on her throat. Twin, parallel, raw, pink lines ran from the base of her throat to the bottom of her chin, but they were practically healed already, as if weeks had passed. However, before Carlisle and I could feel relief over that, we remembered something else. "The venom," I choked out in horror. Not that. She _couldn't_ change – _couldn't _lose her soul like I had. Oh, God, no.

_Edward!_ Carlisle's voice whipped out, distracting me from my personal Hell. _Listen! Her heart doesn't sound like a changing heart. It's too slow, too shallow. I don't think she's changing – but I don't know what _is_ happening, either_, he admitted. _I don't see any injuries – since we can move her, we need to get her home_.

His reasonable voice cut through my panic. He was right. I nodded once, and scooped Bella up into my arms, ignoring the sting of her hot skin against my much colder skin.

Alice gripped Bella's hand, wincing at the heat, and met my eyes. "I still can't see her," she breathed. "I don't know what's going to happen."

"_Nothing_," I snarled, "is going to happen. She's going to be fine." I started the run back to my home so I wouldn't have to face Alice – or anyone else, for that matter.

Even while carrying Bella, I was faster than he rest of my family. I made it back to the house before the rest of them, and ran Bella up the stairs and into Alice's room, where I laid her gently on Alice's king size bed. I looked down at my Bella's face, realizing anew just how flushed her skin was with her fever. Since I was momentarily alone, I started to panic again. Human bodies could only bear a certain amount of heat. Would this fever kill her? _Could_ it kill her – was her human form as fragile as the average human body? Or was it stronger, strong enough to stand this fever that raged through her?

Bella's eyes moved restlessly under her eyelids. I stroked her hot cheek, but could not make my mouth form words of comfort. How could I give her a promise of recovery, when I didn't even know myself if she would live? _She'll be fine!_ a voice in my mind insisted. I hoped so – if she didn't survive, then neither would I. She couldn't die without killing me – we were linked now. If one perished, then so did the other. I personally didn't plan on living much longer if.....

_If_, I repeated to myself grimly, and I gripped her hand tightly in my own, as if that would keep her from slipping away. "I won't let you go," I vowed softly in her ear. There – _that_ was a promise I could keep. I would cling to every scrap of hope while she lived, and..... if she didn't, then I still wouldn't let go – I would follow her, wherever she went, even if that meant leaving the realm of the living with her.

My family arrived. Carlisle darted up the stairs and into Alice's room, with Alice, Esme, and Emmett right on his heels. My mother had her mouth covered with her hands, and her eyes were wide with terror as she looked at her youngest daughter. _Please be all right_, she thought. _Please. I can't loose another_. Her son, Theodore, who had died of a lung infection days after his birth, was fresh in her mind.

Emmett's normally jovial face was paler than normal and hard with worry. _Come on_, he begged Bella. _You're the best fighter I know –_ nothing _beats you! You gonna let this be the first thing to get the best of you? Come on, little sis, kick it into the middle of next year_.

_You're my best friend_, Alice told her silently, her mental voice small and frightened in a way I had never heard it before._ You can't leave now – you just got Edward, for Christ's sake! It'll kill him, if you die. He needs you – _I _need you!_

_She's not going to die!_ I wanted to shout at them. But I knew that I wouldn't be able to handle the sympathetic looks that would follow such an outburst, so I turned instead to the blessedly medical thoughts that Carlisle had. "What do we do?" I whispered

_We need to bring the fever down_, came the prompt reply. Carlisle put a thermometer under her tongue, and we watched in horror as the digital number started to climb. One hundred degrees Fahrenheit. One hundred and ten. One hundred and fifteen. Finally, it bottomed out at eighteen degrees Fahrenheit, high enough to kill any human. There was dead silence in the room and in the minds of my family members as we looked at the number. Carlisle's face had not been this pale in a long time. Fear had put lines around his mouth and eyes.

_We have to bring this temperature down – _now_!_ I could hear in his mind that he was trying hard to keep himself calm for me, and I reached out and squeezed his shoulder in silent thanks. I saw what he intended to do in his mind, and I picked Bella up again before he could ask, and carried her to Rosalie's bathroom, which had a large jacuzzi bathtub in it. I carefully let Bella down into it, and turned the cold water on full blast.

"Alice," Carlisle's calm voice said from the hall, "Get ice, as much as you can, and bring it to Rosalie's bathroom." He was beside me in an instant, his hand on my shoulder. _She'll be fine_, he promised me. _We'll take care of her_. But I could still hear the fear he had shoved into a distant corner of his mind, the fear he was attempting to hide from me. I decided not to mention it – I wanted to believe him as much as he wanted to believe himself.

Alice and Jasper appeared in the doorway, their arms full of all the ice that had been in the freezer, which they dumped into the bathtub. _I'm going to the nearest gas station to get more_, Alice told me and disappeared. I heard a car start, then drive away.

_We have to keep her hydrated_, Carlisle said. _Wait here with her – I have to get my bag, and I might have to make a quick drive to the hospital_.

I nodded, but Carlisle was already in his office, looking through his medical bag to see if he had what he needed. He had an IV, but, he realized, he needed to go to the hospital and steal some sterile saline. He knew that I knew what he was thinking – he didn't bother coming back into the bathroom to explain before he, too, drove away.

I stayed with Bella, holding her hand and praying that she would be all right. The cold, icy water we had placed her in was starting to warm quickly thanks to her fever – the ice was melting, fast. Within two minutes, the ice had vanished entirely, and steam was staring to rise from the water's surface. Nervous, I took her temperature again, and nearly dropped the thermometer – rather than going down, Bella's fever had risen to one hundred and twenty-one degrees. Luckily, at that very second, Alice came in holding five bags of ice, two of which we poured into the tub.

Alice's frightened eyes met mine. _How is she?_

I couldn't look her in the eyes and answer. "Worse," I breathed. It was true – her lips were chapped and slightly parted as she drew in breath after raspy, rattling breath. I could see that her tongue and throat were starting to swell – her fever was dehydrating her, burning up her from the inside out. She needed to get moisture into her system, sooner rather than later.

Alice took Bella's other hand, flinching when Bella's fever burned her, and waited with me in silence. I could see Bella through her eyes, could see that she loved Bella, too, that her condition hurt her, as well.

After what felt like too long, Carlisle returned and inserted the IV, hooking Bella up to fluids. He had an unusually hard time inserting the IV – Bella's dehydrated state made her veins harder to find. But I felt better when he sat back, finished. Carlisle did, too, until I told him that Bella's fever had gone up while he'd been gone. Then his eyes tightened again, and he felt Bella's forehead with the back of his hand. When he felt that Bella was indeed hotter, he leaned back and rubbed his eyes with his hands. _I don't know what else to do, Edward,_ he told me. _I could give her medicine to bring down the fever, but this fever is so high, it would burn the medicine off before it even had a chance to work._ He sighed. _The only thing we can do now is keep the fever from overwhelming her entirely, and wait. _

We waited for eight hours. Bella's fever kept rising steadily for five of those hours despite our efforts until it leveled out at around one hundred and thirty degrees. Then it stayed like that, no matter what we did. We kept adding ice to the water Bella was in, and Bella kept melting it. Her body heat was so high that the water around her began to steam if we didn't constantly put more ice in it. Once, when we ran out of ice and Alice was still driving back from the gas station where she was buying more, bubbles like the bubbles that form on the bottom of a pot that is filled with almost-boiling water started to form on Bella's skin.

After eight hours, we were all frantic – even Rosalie. In desperation, Alice went to Bella's room and started looking through her pack, looking for anything that might help us. After she'd gone through Bella's clothes and notebook, she finally resorted to turning the pack upside down and shaking it. Bella's weapons, a raw diamond, and an ebony panther fell out – and a small piece of paper fluttered through the air toward the floor. Alice caught it before it hit the ground. On it, a phone number was written in small, tidy handwriting, along with the words _Just in case_.

Alice stared at the scrap of paper, stunned, for a second, and I stared at it, equally shocked, through her eyes. Then thoughts broke through the wall of shock. "_Jasper!_" she shrieked. "_Get me a phone!_" She dashed back to Rosalie's bathroom – she knew that I wanted to be the one to make the call.

Jasper was confused, but, after feeling the wild, desperate hope and excitement coming off Alice and me, he knew to do what Alice said first, and ask questions later. He brought a small, silver cell phone to me, and I dialed the number as fast as I could. While the phone rang, I handed the piece of paper to Jasper in a silent explanation.

The phone rang four times, and I grew more anxious with each ring. What if the person we were trying to call didn't have the phone with them? What if they didn't want to answer because they didn't recognize our number? But before I could worry too much, someone answered the phone. "Hello?" a woman's voice said.

I spoke quickly, rushing through the words. "Bella needs help!"

Whoever had answered the phone was silent for a moment, then the female voice said pleasantly, "Bella? I'm sorry, but I don't know a Bella. You must have the wrong number."

I panicked. The woman was my last hope, and she was about to hang up. I had to make staying on the line worth her while – I had to say something that would make her want to listen. "I know what you are," I blurted out.

"Really?" the voice said after a beat of silence. I could tell that the woman was starting to realize that she needed to listen to me. "And what am I, exactly?"

"You're a Cat," I replied, still talking fast. "Bella's hurt, and she needs help!" That was the point. I had posed a threat to their secret to get their attention – now I needed help.

The woman snorted derisively. "Oh, I don't doubt that. If a vampire's calling me and knows about our kind, then, yes, I'm sure Bella's in _lots_ trouble. Have you killed her, or are you trying to hold her for ransom?"

"No," I gasped, appalled. "She's a friend! But there was a fight, and she was bitten, and -"

The woman laughed. _Laughed!_ "I highly doubt that she would find you a suitable friend. But, either way, what my daughter gets herself into isn't my concern anymore," she informed me coolly.

I felt like I'd been plunged into ice water. "Renee," I said flatly. I was really talking to the wrong person if I wanted help. But I had to try. "If that were true, then why did you give Bella this number?"

Renee made an annoyed sound. "I gave Bella that number a _long_ time ago, and only at the insistence of a friend. But," she added, for I had drawn in a breath to shout at her, "just for fun, let me see if I've got this right. My daughter is your friend, but there was a fight of some kind, and she was bitten by a vampire. Now she has a terrible fever, and you want to know what to do. Have I got that about right?"

"Yes," I growled. I was practically vibrating with tension and impatience – what was Renee playing at?

"Well," Renee began, "how about this? I'll tell you what you can do for her – on one condition."

"Name it," I said swiftly, feeling weak with relief. Renee was going to help. I would do anything.

"Tell me where you are."

The relief vanished. "_What?_" I snarled.

"Tell me where you are, and I'll tell you what you can do for Bella."

"_No!_" I hissed. "You're out of your mind!" Oh, yes, she would tell me what to do – and then she would find my family and kill them.

Renee's voice was smooth, calm, and cool, totally unaffected by my refusal. "Then I won't tell you what to do, and Bella will die."

My heart felt as though it had been encased in ice. "You would let your own daughter die?" I whispered through unmoving lips.

Her voice was very certain. "Like I told you, she isn't my problem anymore. So, if you're not going to tell me anything, and I'm not going to tell _you _anything, why don't I hang up, hmmm? Save us both money on our phone bills."

"_Wait!_" I shouted. I shot a desperate look at Alice and Jasper. Jasper's mouth was pressed into a tight line. _Don't you dare_, he snarled mentally. I could tell that he would reach out and crush the phone in my hand if I tried to tell Renee our location.

But Alice's eyes met mine. She looked once at Jasper, and, though she didn't speak, her gaze was fierce enough to make him back down. Alice looked back at me and nodded curtly once. _We don't have much of a choice – as she well knows._

Renee was waiting. "Well?" she demanded.

I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger. I couldn't believe that I was about to endanger my entire family like this. But, as Alice had said, I didn't have a choice. So, my voice no more than a whisper, I gave Renee our address. "Now," I snarled – I wasn't very happy with Renee – "I kept my end of the bargain. Tell me what I can do for Bella."

Renee chuckled darkly, and my stomach dropped. I didn't even know what she was going to say, but I knew that, whatever it was, it would be of no use to me or Bella. Renee had scammed us. "Nothing," she said lightly, confirming my worst fear. "You can do absolutely nothing."

I roared in fury and threw the phone at the wall, shattering the plastic device and cracking the plaster of the wall, but I knew that Renee had hung up – in the split second before the phone hit the wall, I'd heard a dial tone. I returned to Bella's side, fuming and hopeless. That was it, then, wasn't it? We hadn't been able to bring the fever down in any way we knew how. And the only person who _could_ have helped us didn't want to. There was no hope. Feeling as though I could have wept, if that were possible, I reached down and took Bella's hand again.

And I felt the shock through my entire body. Her hand was cooler. Not its normal temperature, but not blazing hot, either. I gasped, and Alice was at my side in an instant. "What happened?" she whispered.

Carlisle, who had heard my gasp, darted into the room and placed his hand on Bella's forehead – and gasped, too. "Her fever has gone down!" he rejoiced. "I don't know how or why, and I don't really care, but it's gone down!"

We waited on pins and needles for forty-five minutes, listening to Bella's breath and heartbeat even out. Her fever continued to drop.

And then Bella groaned, and opened her eyes.


	15. Sticky Situation

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Edward's Point of View

"Bella!" I cried, and I lifted her out of Rosalie's bathtub to hold her to me as tightly as I dared – this was her most human form, after all, and was fragile. Ignoring the fact that she was soaking wet, I clutched her as if she might have been taken away from me at any moment, then shuddered when I remembered that she almost _had_ been taken away from me. I pulled back slightly only so I could cover her face with kisses. "You," I whispered fiercely between kisses, "will _never_ – _ever_ – do that to me again!" I gripped her shoulders and looked into her face so she would know I was serious. "_Ever!_" I repeated.

Bella looked dazed. She squinted at me, like she couldn't see me clearly, and shook her head. "How long was I out?" she asked.

"Almost nine hours," Alice told her. She reached around me to take one of Bella's hands. "I'm so glad you're all right," my sister breathed in a choked voice. "I thought....." She trailed off. Bella understood what Alice had thought – what we _all _had thought.

Bella's lips twitched. "It would take more than that to kill me. That was just my body's way of dealing with the vampire venom. My kind can't change into a vampires, but our bodies have to get rid of the venom somehow – so we get fevers to burn it off. The fevers have to be high, because your venom is viscous and potent, but normally it isn't _that _bad – I just had a lot of venom in my system, so I needed a very high fever to burn all of it off."

"But _we_ didn't know that!" Emmett boomed from behind me. The rest of my family, except Jasper, had crowded into the bathroom after they'd realized that Bella had woken up. Esme was so vastly relieved that she had to lean on Carlisle for support. Carlisle was fervently thanking God in his mind. Emmett was filled with such a bouncing happiness that his thoughts were nearly incoherent. Even Rosalie was a little happy. "We had no idea what was happening," my brother continued, squeezing his way between Alice and me so he could reach down to rumple Bella's wet hair. "And, I know its off topic, but has you mom _always_ been _such_ a -"

Bella's head snapped up, her eyes snapping with sharp awareness. Her smile was gone. "My _what?_" she snapped, her eyes boring into Emmett's. "You spoke to my mother?"

He was taken aback by Bella's expression and tone. "Well, not me personally," he elaborated. "Edward was the one who did the talking, but we could all hear the conversation."

Bella whipped her head around so she could look at me. "What did she say? What did _you_ say?" she demanded, sounding more than a little worried.

I tried my best to sooth her. "I asked her for help, and she told me that there wasn't anything I could do," I said. It was the truth – mainly. I hoped that Bella wouldn't notice my editing.

But, of course, she did. Her eyes narrowed. She gripped my hand tightly. "How did you keep her on the line long enough to ask a question? I know my mother – if a vampire called her, she would make some excuse and hang up. And she would know what you are by your voice."

I was doing my best to think up a believable lie that I could tell her, but Jasper answered before I could. From the basement, where Jasper had been packing necessities like fake IDs and money, and destroying anything that could be used to track us ever since Renee had hung up on me, snarled a reply. _"He told her that he knew what she was." _

I snarled sharply at Jasper, and Bella's face paled. "Please," she whispered, "tell me you didn't."

Again, Jasper answered before I could. "He did," he hissed furiously. "And do you know what _else_ my idiot brother did?!"

"Jasper!" I snarled in warning. He didn't pay any attention to me.

"He _told_ her -" Jasper began, the volume of his voice rising until he was shouting.

I stood, about to go down to the basement and _make_ Jasper be quiet. "Shut up!" I roared.

"_WHERE WE ARE!_" Jasper thundered, finishing his sentence. Behind me, I heard Bella's heart stop, and I spun around to make sure she was all right.

If her face had been pale before, it was nothing compared to how white it was now. She had blanched completely. Even her lips were white. Her eyes were huge and horrified, and her hands were gripping the sides of the bathtub so hard that her knuckles had turned white. For one second, I stared at her and she stared at me, too shocked and terrified to move.

And then she exploded into action. She vaulted out of the bathtub so violently that everyone was covered in water, and started to run out of the bathroom. However, her wet feet and her human reflexes proved to be a bad combination, for she almost immediately slipped on the wet tile, her feet flying out from underneath her. I darted forward and caught her before she hit the floor.

Bella snarled a word that I had never heard her say before, and knocked my hands away. I heard her heart stop again, but this time I noticed the subtle change in her scent that meant she had changed into the In Between form she usually used.

As soon as her feet touched the floor again, she was running at full speed to her room. We all followed her. Bella picked up her weapons from where Alice had left them lying on the floor, and strapped them to her waist. As she did, she addressed us in a cold, flat, methodical voice. "You are leaving this house in sixty seconds," she informed us. "Take nothing except fake IDs and money – cash only. Burn any and all credit cards and paper work – tax records, bills, social security cards, pictures, everything – that you have. No clothing. Take one car, and drive to the nearest airport. When you get there, get on the first flight you find – I don't care where it's heading. From where you land, take another flight to Italy, and go to the Volturi. Tell them the truth, and that you need protection. They're your best bet for survival."

She'd finished putting her sword and dagger on, and brushed past us as she ran out her door. Alice ran to do what Bella had said. "What day is it?" Bella demanded, talking to no one in particular.

Carlisle asked a question of his own. "What's happening?"

Bella answered without looking back at him as she headed for the laundry room. "They're hunting you. What day is it?"

"April fourth," Esme whispered.

Bella nodded once. "How long has it been since Edward called my mother? Be precise."

"Fifty minutes," I replied, finally catching up to Bella while she practically turned the laundry room upside down in search of something. As she looked, she murmured, sounding like she was thinking aloud, "The fourth..... they should be in or near New York, so we had about an hour. There should be some time for them to get out....." I was about to ask her what she was looking for when she snatched a jug of chlorine bleach and shook to see how full it was. It was nearly empty. She placed the jug back on the washer and stalked out of the laundry room. "Esme," she called, her voice smooth and tightly controlled, "do you have any fertilizer?"

Esme, wide eyed and frightened, answered. "Only about one eighth of a bag – I was going to go shopping tomorrow."

Bella tried again. "Hydrogen peroxide, hexamine – it's in solid fuel tablets – and citric acid?" Carlisle shook his head. "An old thermometer that has mercury and any type of alcohol – for the ethanol?" Bella was getting desperate. "No. 2 fuel oil? Diesel? Kerosene?"

Chlorine bleach? Fertilizer? Hydrogen peroxide? Mercury? What did she need those for? I thought about the uses for the things she'd asked for. The only thing I could think of that all the materials Bella had requested had in common was..... Then the truth hit me like a wrecking ball. Mercury and ethanol were the two main ingredients in mercury tulminate. Hydrogen peroxide, hexamine, and citric acid were the components of hexamethylene triperoxide diamine. All were common home-made explosives. I felt my jaw drop, and Carlisle met my eyes, equally stunned, when he realized what Bella was trying to make.

But everyone else was still in he dark. "Why do you need fertilizer?" Emmett asked, confused.

Bella snapped. She lost her self-control, and she exploded. "Because I didn't think you had any C-4 lying around!" she shrieked.

Rosalie, who was standing behind Emmett, took a step back. "Why are you trying to make a bomb?"

Bella advanced on Rosalie, a snarl building in her throat. "Because you are being hunted by a group of elite warriors who have hated your kind for two thousand years. We are out numbered, and out skilled. Maybe if it was just one or two that I was up against I could fight them off, but I'll be facing ten of them, and a bomb would have been helpful."

Bella sucked in a deep breath to calm herself, then said flatly. "Your sixty seconds are up. Get in a car."

Jasper appeared then with Alice by his side. They had only one bag which contained the family's fake passports driver's licenses. There was also enough money to keep us afloat for a hundred years, if need be. Jasper hustled Alice to the garage, his hand on the small of her back. When Bella noticed that no one else was moving, sighed sharply and gripped me and Esme by our upper arms and dragged us to the garage. "Take the Jeep – it's the biggest," she called to Jasper. "Stay on the main roads, roads that have a lot of traffic. It might slow you down a bit, but you need to stay in public – they won't attack you if there are humans around." She pushed Esme unceremoniously into the back seat of Emmett's giant Jeep, and tried to do the same to me.

I dug in my heels and stayed put. I wasn't going anywhere. "You keep giving us these directions like you're not going with us," I noted in a hard voice.

Bella turned around and ran back into the house. I followed her. "I'm not," she replied as she pushed Rosalie, Emmett, and Carlisle out the front door and toward the garage.

I grabbed her arm before she could rush off again. "What do you mean, you're not going with us?" I growled.

Bella glared up at me. "That I'm not going with you!"

"WHY?" I roared.

"Because someone has to keep them from chasing after you!" Bella shouted back.

I felt cold – Bella meant to fight them. "I'm not leaving you here," I promised. I would never let her face those odds alone, especially since I was sure that her pride would kill her. There was no way I was leaving.

"Yes, you are," she snapped.

"_No_, I'm not."

"_Yes, you are!_" Bella hissed furiously. She gripped the front of my shirt in both hands and pulled me down so our faces were on the same level. "_You_ told her that you knew!" Bella said fiercely. "_You _told her where you were! _You_ put them in danger! Now _you_ need to help make them safe again! Go!"

I flinched at her very true accusations, but I would not be moved. "I can't leave you," I told her softly.

The fury disappeared. "But they'll kill you!" she cried. "_And_ your family!" Her eyes became desperate. "Don't make me watch you burn," she begged. "I couldn't bear that."

"Edward!" Jasper called sharply. "Get in the car!"

"I'm not leaving her," I snapped.

"Don't you dare drive off, Jasper Whitlock!" Alice screeched. "We can't leave without him!"

Bella threw her hands up. "Perfect! You won't leave without me, and they won't leave without you! We _do not_ have time for this, Edward!" She looked up at me beseechingly. "Go," she urged. "I'll be fine – they won't hurt me. _You're_ the ones they perceive as threats. I'll be fine." I shook my head adamantly, and a dangerous gleam appeared in Bella's eyes. "Emmett!" she snarled. "come help me drag him to the car, then hold him down while -"

She never finished her sentence because, seemingly for no reason at all, Bella stiffened, then whirled to face the river, drawing her _katana_ in one smooth motion as she did. A snarl ripped out of her chest.

Across the river, behind the ferns, a large form became visible, and walked forward. It leaped gracefully over the river and started to walk toward us. It was an ocelot, I realized. Bigger than any ocelot could ever be, which meant that it had to be a Cat. That explained why Bella had prepared for an attack.

But it did not explain why Bella's snarls stopped suddenly, or why her hands began to shake, or why Jasper could suddenly feel horror radiating from her. The tip of her sword dropped two inches, then came back up as she steeled herself. Jasper felt her horror change slightly, become pained. "Don't come any closer," Bella warned the ocelot. "I don't want to have to kill you." The ocelot didn't seem to hear her, and kept coming. Bella tightened her grip on her sword. "_Stop_, Marisol!" she screamed. "Don't make me do this!" She was begging. "Please! I don't want to hurt you."

The ocelot stopped and cocked its head, then sat down on the grass. Then, suddenly, it wasn't an ocelot anymore. It was instead a slight Hispanic woman with dark, liquid-looking eyes. Alice gasped, and mentally compared that woman to a drawing she had seen in Bella's notebook. They were the same person. This was Bella's friend. Marisol looked steadily at Bella. "Would you kill me, Bella?" she asked in a quiet, gentle voice.

Bella was shaking again. "If I had to," she whispered.

Marisol's eyes flickered to my family and me. "To protect them," she observed. Bella nodded silently, and Marisol sighed. "I admit that I do not understand," she murmured. Bella said nothing. Marisol waited, but, when it became clear that Bella wouldn't respond, she became frustrated. She surged swiftly to her feet, and I overreacted. Thinking that she meant to charge Bella, my hand shot forward and gripped Bella's arm, ready to yank her behind me.

Marisol's eyes widened. And kept widening. Her shocked eyes moved from my hand on Bella's arm, to my face, to Bella's face, and back again. Her jaw dropped. "He – you," she stuttered. "_That_ is why you defend them? Because of _him?_"

Bella sighed and took my hand. "Yes," she replied.

"But he's a vampire!" Marisol protested. "You've fought his kind for your whole life!"

Bella's mouth tightened into a hard line. "He is _nothing_ like the rest of his kind!" she retorted. "Look at his eyes if you don't believe me!"

Marisol looked at me again, studying my gold eyes, then looked over my shoulder. I followed her gaze and saw that Emmett, Carlisle, and Esme had gotten out of the car and were standing behind us. Esme's face was terrified, but I knew that she wasn't afraid for herself. "Please," she breathed when she saw that Marisol was looking at her. "Don't hurt my family."

Marisol frowned slightly at the word _family_, but seemed to accept the fact that we were indeed different. She looked back to me. "What makes your eyes this color?" she asked.

Carlisle answered her. "My family and I do not feed on the blood of humans. We have survived for many years by hunting animals instead."

That he was telling the truth was evident in Carlisle's voice. A slow smile started to spread across Marisol's face. "Well, then," she said lightly, "that changes things." She smirked at Bella. "If I try to give you a hug, will you run me through?" she inquired.

Bella could barely manage a smile. "I'll try not to." She sheathed her sword, and pulled Marisol into a tight hug. She was shaking again.

Marisol pulled back. "It's been too long," she observed. Then she sobered. "You have quite the situation on your hands, Bella. "

Bella let out a shaking breath. "Don't I know it. Speaking of which," she turned back to me and my family. "All of you get in the car and go – now."

I was about to refuse again, but Marisol spoke before I could. "That won't help," she told Bella softly. Bella looked at her sharply. "Renee's already here, with Hanson's pride from Canada. They've already established a perimeter."

Bella went dead white. She reached out and gripped my hand tightly. "Then all they've got to do is tighten the noose," she whispered hoarsely.

Marisol's eyes lingered on Bella's hand in mine. She looked Bella in the eye. "They will try to kill them because they don't trust them to keep the secret. I have to ask this now – do you trust them?"

Bella nodded. "With my life."

Marisol scrutinized her face. "And are you happy with them?" She glanced at me. "With _him?_"

Bella straightened. "Happier than I've ever been," she said emotionally.

Marisol nodded. "That's good enough for me. However, Renee will be harder to convince." Marisol sat back down. "What are your plans?"

Bella sat facing her friend, and I sat with her. "Renee will never believe that they can be trusted," Bella mused. "If she's given a choice, she'll have then killed."

Marisol looked seriously at Bella. "And you," she said quietly. "She'll kill you, too."

_That_ got my attention. "You told me that you wouldn't be harmed!" I accused Bella.

Bella shrugged. "I was trying to get you to leave me here," she reminded me. "I lied."

"And what a lie!" Marisol muttered. "You'll fare worse than they will if this ends badly."

I was instantly more alert. "What do you mean?"

Marisol met my eyes. "If this ends badly, you and your family will die," she said. "So will Bella, but....." she trailed of and shuddered, then continued, "She will die a traitor's death. Your Volturi is more concerned with cleaning up after a problem, but our people prefer preventing a problem before it happens. Thus, in order to keep Cats from telling anyone about what we are, those who _do_ tell are killed – with a slow, painful, humiliating, _public_ death. This is what will happen to Bella if this ends badly."

I stared at Bella in horror. She had definitely failed to mention that. She had to leave, now, before there was even a _chance_ that would happen to her. But Bella said coolly, "That will only happen if I fail. So _give me a second_ to make sure that doesn't happen."

She sat with her eyes closed in concentration for a long moment. My family and I watched her in tense silence. Jasper was at a loss – he knew that we were surrounded, and his soldier's mind knew that his chances of surviving, of _Alice's_ surviving, were slim. Carlisle and Esme held hands, dreading the confrontation to come, fearing that they might loose the family they had worked so hard to build and loved so much. Rosalie and Emmett, too, held each other, their thoughts consumed with the idea of losing the other. Alice was frightened for Jasper, for me, and for Bella, and wished that she was able to see what was coming.

And I stared at Bella's face. She would fight to the death to protect me and my family, of that I had no doubt. And that very fact terrified me. I had to keep her from fighting for us, had to convince her to run while she still could. Out of all of us, she had the best chance of getting through the Cat's perimeter and escaping them. But I knew that I would never be able to talk her into leaving.

Then Bella's eyes snapped open. "_Yes!_" she hissed, fiercely victorious. She gripped my hand tightly, but not desperately anymore. "I know how we're going to beat her!"

She had all of our attention immediately. "How?" Marisol asked. "We can't beat them in a fight, and, like you said, Renee will never let them live if she's given the choice."

Bella grinned fiercely. "We can't outfight them, but we _can _outsmart them. If Renee isn't _given _a choice, then maybe we can get out of this."

Marisol looked doubtful. "How exactly do you intend to take the choice away form her?"

Bella was smug when she answered. "The Parson's Privilege."

Marisol's jaw dropped, and she smacked herself on the forehead. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" She shook her head, and grinned broadly at Bella. "How very devious of you – they definitely won't expect _that_. Now I see why you wear the Marks."

Carlisle spoke up then. "Please tell me what you're talking about," he said, trying to beat back the hope he felt until he was sure that it was safe to hope.

Marisol explained animatedly. "In the 1890's, there was a fight in Virginia, between a pair of vampires and a lone Cat. The Cat killed the vampires, but he was wounded – bitten. The venom made him delirious, he staggered through the woods aimlessly. When, in his confused state, he saw a light ahead, he followed it, and found himself in the front yard of a small house.

"The house belonged to a man who had fought in the Civil War. He had been a medic, but after the war had ended, he had given his life to God. The old parson and his wife heard something outside, and when they went to look, there was a rather large leopard in their yard. The Cat lost his hold on his Cat shape, and passed out in the yard in his most human form. The wife told her husband to shoot the man, but he couldn't. Instead, he took the man inside, and doctored his wounds. Of course, everything healed in a matter of minutes, but the parson still tried to help bring his fever down." I shuddered lightly, remembering Bella's fever, how hopeless I had felt.

Marisol continued. "After the Cat woke up and found himself in a human's home, he ran off into the woods. Another pride found out about the incident, and would have killed the parson and his wife, but the Cat the man had helped appealed to our law makers, and won. An exception to the law was made – if, while trying to aid a Cat, someone finds out what the Cat is, he or she may live because they tried to help the Cat." Marisol grinned at me. "If what I heard from Renee is true, you aided Bella when she was bitten by a vampire she killed, correct?"

I nodded, but Emmett, showing his lack of prudence, admitted, "We found out what she was before that happened."

We all snarled at him, but Marisol shrugged. "I won't tell if you won't."

Bella stood. "They'll be here soon," she said grimly. "You all should stand in front of the house. Marisol and I will be in front of you."

"One moment," Marisol called. "What are your names?"

Bella made an exasperated noise. "Is this really the time for that?"

"It's the perfect time," Marisol said defensively. "If I wait too much longer, we might all be dead."

So, after the hasty introductions, my family and I were positioned on the porch of the house with Bella and Marisol standing in front of us.

We were about to face two prides of angry Cats who wanted us dead. There was a possibility that they would get what they wanted.

And yet, somehow, Emmett still managed to be humorous. "So," he began, elbowing me in the ribs. "I bet you never guessed that _this _would be how you'd meet her family."


	16. Wait, Didn't You Just Try To Kill Us?

Disclaimer: I don not own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

**A/N: The next couple chapters will probably be written in Edward's point of view because the things that Cat's do are new to him. To Bella, everything will be normal, and I don't think that would be a very insightful point of view to write from. **

Edward's Point of View

They approached slowly, warily, and silently. One second I was glaring into the forest, my every sense straining to detect the Cat's presence. The next second, completely without warning, ten massive Cats appeared and shouldered their way through the ferns that bordered our front lawn.

My breath caught. _Majestic_, Carlisle whispered mentally. That was a good word – even if they meant to kill us. I'd seen Bella and Marisol in their Cat forms, but I had only seen them that way one at a time. To see so many abnormally large cats at once, all moving forward in grim unison, was breathtaking in a dangerous sort of way – like a tornado. I couldn't help but stare. They were all huge, too large to be anything but supernatural, and moved gracefully without making a sound despite their size. Their minds were as silent as Bella's, and I thanked God for Jasper, who had at least some insight to what was going through their minds.

They approached in a V formation. The Cat that was at the head of the V had a tawny mountain lion form. Jasper's eyes narrowed when he felt the cool anger and determination rolling off it, which turned into humiliation and less-detached anger that filled it when it looked at Bella. _I think I found Renee_, he muttered silently, resentfully. _Bella wasn't joking – she _is_ cold._

The Cat that flanked the leader on the left side was an African lion – male, judging by the mane – and was so huge that he dwarfed even the other Cats. Scars dotted his forelegs and paws, and there was a crescent shaped bite mark on the right side of his muzzle. I even glimpsed the silvery, curling lines on his back that Marked him as a superb warrior. He was, I realized, a fighter that had seen a lot of battles – old, very experienced, and intimidating. He would be one of the greater threats if Bella's plan didn't succeed. His hard green eyes scanned the clearing in a manner that reminded me of Jasper. But when those eyes landed on Bella, standing alone but for Marisol, ready to fight, ready to kill– ready to _die_ – to defend us, his eyes changed. Horror filled them, followed by fear and pain. Through Jasper, I felt what the Cat felt, and learned that he loved Bella like a daughter. He cringed away from the thought of fighting her, much less killing her. Jasper was in full soldier mode, searching for any weaknesses, and noted that this Cat's reluctance to fight might make him an easier target. But I remembered that Bella had been prepared to kill Marisol – her close friend – if necessary. With that memory in my mind, I found it impossible to share Jasper's hope.

The Cat that was on the leaders right side was a leopard, smaller than the leader, but with keen brown eyes that missed nothing. _This one will be like Bella_, Jasper decided. _Not especially strong, but skilled and fast. Watch out for that one. _That Cat's eyes, too, became pained when they reached Bella.

Another Cat, one of the farthest back, also a mountain lion, looked distinctly pained and uncomfortable. Its eyes were fixed on Bella, and it started to drag its feet. It made a pleading sound in the back of its throat, then flinched when the lead Cat – the one we thought was Renee – snarled sharply at it. Jasper immediately thought that that Cat would be fairly easy to take down – it was absolutely horrified at the thought of fighting Bella, and wanted desperately to leave.

The rest of the Cats – a tiger, a cheetahs, a jaguar, a snow leopard, a Margay, and a bobcat – didn't seem to care that they were about to fight two of their own kind. As they walked, all but the three who didn't want to fight Bella curled their lips up silently in synchronization. A snarl from behind the house made me jerk in surprise. Apparently, there were even more Cats behind us. We were trapped. If Bella's plan failed.....

Only a second had passed since the Cat had emerged from the woods. Right as I thought that we would die if Bella couldn't make her plan work, Bella stepped forward. All the Cats snarled loudly at her advance, but kept coming. I couldn't breathe. My hands were clenched at my sides. I was straining to keep still. An ever-growing part of me was yearning, screaming, to dash forward, pick Bella up, and make a run for it. Or kill each and every Cat who was threatening her life. It felt so incredibly _wrong_ to not be protecting her at that moment, like I was going against every instinct I had. I probably was. Seeing Bella standing, all alone, acting as a barrier between me and my family and a pride of Cats who wanted her dead was almost more than I could bear. It should have been the other way around! _I_ should have been protecting _her!_ If I hadn't known that she had a plan she was certain of, I wouldn't have been able to stand it. As it was, it was nearly impossible.

Then Bella spoke, her stance confident, in a loud clear voice that cut through the tension in the air like a knife. "For aid rendered to me while I was in need, I claim the Parson's Privilege for the Cullen family." The words and the tone they were spoken in sounded old, ritualistic, like something spoken in an ancient rite or ceremony.

When Bella had first devised this plan, Marisol had said that the Cats would never expect it. True to her word, every Cat stopped dead in their tracks. All of their eyes widened, and a few jaws dropped. Then a twinkle appeared in the eyes of the African lion, and his whiskers lifted like he was smiling. The leopard looked vastly relieved, as did the mountain lion in the back whom Renee had snarled at.

Renee, however, looked furious after she recovered from her shock. A ferocious snarl ripped from between her bared teeth, and then she was no longer in her Cat form. Instead, she stood, shaking with fury, in an In Between form similar to the one Bella was wearing. Similar because Renee had a human shaped body now, but also different because her fingernails weren't really nails at all – they were black claws that were three inches long, and her canine teeth were long and pointed – ironic, I thought; she looked more like a vampire than I did. In the brief moment before Renee exploded, I noticed how much Bella looked like her – the same hair color, the same face. She was even wearing a black tank-top and shorts, just like Bella often did. But then Renee started shouting, taking my mind completely off what she looked like. "_WHAT?!_" she shrieked at Bella, who kept her face calm and expressionless. "_Are you _mad_, girl?!_"

"No," Bella inserted while Renee took breath. "They deserve it."

Renee hissed furiously at Bella, her body coiling as if she was going to attack. "I doubt that!" she growled. "And even if they did, the Parson's Privilege isn't extended to vampires! Humans only!"

Oh, no. Had Bella known that? If she had, why had she still proposed this plan? But Bella cocked her head curiously, as if that was news to her. "Really? Where does the Law state that?" she inquired politely. She wasn't _acting_ like her plan was doomed.

Renee's expression became even more incensed, and she sucked in a huge breath like she was going to scream the very obvious answer. But then she froze. She closed her mouth. Her breath escaped in a rush. Her eyes widened and her face went dead white. I had to suppress a victorious grin. I was willing to bet my Aston Martin that it _wasn't_ written in the Law, and that Renee had said that it was out of impulsive anger. "I -" Renee sputtered. "I – I will not allow it!"

Bella's voice turned frosty. "It isn't exactly your choice, is it? After all," A hard note of old anger crept into her voice, and she sounded like she was quoting someone. "We have Laws. You can't just break them. You have to obey the Laws just like everyone else." Her voice became terrible and soft. "Isn't that what you told me when you refused to sanction the hunt for Sarah's murderers?"

Esme shuddered slightly. _Bella can certainly sound frightening when she's angry_, she thought. I agreed.

Renee's mouth tightened. Emmett barely managed to keep from laughing. _She didn't like _that_, did she?_ he chortled to himself. Since Renee didn't have a good answer for that accusation, she resorted to petty insults. "I suppose you've killed them by now. Did they give you those new scars?" she asked coolly, her gaze lingering on Bella's throat, where James' teeth had left two parallel slashes. She smirked. "You've slowed down, huh?" she asked, falsely sympathetic.

Bella crossed her arms over her chest. "You have a few new scars, too," she noted. "I would ask if you've slowed down, but you were never that fast in the first place, so....." she trailed off with a shrug.

Renee's mouth hardened even more, mashing into a tight line. She returned to the argument about my family and me. "As I said, I refuse to let a threat to our kind live."

Bella shrugged again, but her shoulders were stiff. "And as _I _said, it's not your choice," she reminded her mother. "And if you would take a look at their eyes you would see that they aren't like the others."

Renee growled, and started grasping at minor details. "The Law states that if the Cats oppose a motion, they may challenge it."

Bella nodded. "By choosing a representative to fight on their behalf," she finished. "I know that."

Renee turned to look speculatively at her pride. She glanced at the African lion in the front, the one who had the Marks, but the lion looked steadily back at Renee. He didn't need to speak out loud to send his message: He wouldn't fight Renee's battles for her.

"I'll handle this," a male voice volunteered from behind the house. A young man with dark hair and eyes, about Bella's age, walked around the house, closely followed by seven more Cats who were still in the Cat forms – the group of Cats that had been behind us. Or rather, the boy _swaggered_ forward – his overconfidence would have been obvious to even the most unobservant of people. He grinned and winked at Bella. "Good to see you again, Sweetheart."

A vicious snarl burst from my chest before I could stop it. Everyone turned to look at me. I didn't care. The way that boy had looked at her, _leering_, the way he'd called her sweetheart, as if he owned her..... I was seeing red. "Call her that again and I'll tear your tongue out," I snarled blackly. I tried to step forward, but Emmett and Jasper grabbed me.

"Edward," Bella murmured dryly, "Thanks, but you're not exactly helping."

I looked automatically to see what she was talking about, and realized that every Cat in the yard was stunned again, Renee most of all. Her face was ashen, her eyes huge in her face. "Bella," she whispered through unmoving lips. "Please, _please_, tell me that he is only showing _brotherly_ or _friendly_ concern. Please don't tell me that he's getting territorial because he's....."

Bella didn't answer, and I suddenly realized that I'd just made the situation much more difficult. Bella glanced up at me, slightly irritated, but mostly bleakly amused. I gestured apologetically. "Sorry," I whispered.

Bella waved my apology away. "It's fine. They would have figured it out eventually." She turned back to her pride, which was becoming less shocked and more horrified by the second. "Mom," she began, her voice light, as if she was a normal teenage girl introducing her mother to her boyfriend for the first time, "this is Edward, my....." she glanced back up at me, a wicked smile on her face. She was having fun toying with her mother. "What _is_ the official status now?" she asked me innocently. "Boyfriend?"

I decided to play along – annoying Renee was strangely..... _gratifying_. "Boyfriend works," I replied.

Renee looked ready to kill. "I..... I am at a loss for words. I can almost believe you rejecting your own kind and maybe even befriending some vampires who are different from the rest of their kind, but..... but _this?_ This is a new low, even for you, Bella. This is disgusting." The tone of her voice – she actually believed that Bella's wanting to be with me was disgusting – made me stiffen in anger. My chin jerked up defiantly, my back straightened. Emmett and Rosalie scowled. Carlisle, Esme, Alice, and Jasper were annoyed, but didn't really care what Renee thought.

But before I could make a retort, the dark haired boy who'd called Bella sweetheart spoke up. "Now, Renee, Bella can be with whatever she wants to be with." He grinned evilly at Bella. "But, then again, she won't be with anybody after I kill her, so problem solved." he bowed mockingly and gestured for Bella to precede him to the middle of the clearing.

Renee, who looked annoyed at the boy's dismissal, also gestured Bella forward. "Go on – let's settle this. If you win, you will have won the appeal. You and the vampires will live. If Damon wins, you will have lost the appeal, and all of you will die. Do you accept these terms?"

Bella nodded once. "I do." And she walked forward to duel Damon.

They faced off. "So," Damon began casually, "How do you want to do this? Swords?"

Bella shrugged. "It's all the same to me – you can pick."

Damon grinned. "All right. I think we'll go furry. We fight as Cats." He crouched low as Bella removed her swords and dagger. When Bella was ready, Damon's grin widened until his smile became feral. "Let's see how much he likes you when you have a tail," he growled.

And then he and Bella changed. Bella's familiar panther crouched opposite a Bengal tiger. I stopped breathing for a second. Damon's tiger form was larger than Bella's panther, and he looked stronger, too. The tiger curled its lips over its teeth, which were long and deadly. _Don't worry_, Emmett encouraged me silently. _He may be stronger, but I bet she's faster and a better fighter. She'll beat him easy._ If only I could be so sure.

Damon roared at Bella, trying to intimidate her. When I heard the sound, a random bit of trivia popped into my head – the roar of an African lion can be heard from up to three miles away. Damon's roar was much louder than that. It made the windows of the house rattle in their panes. I could feel the vibrations in the wood of the porch beneath my feet.

Bella didn't answer with a panther's war scream. She simply waited, the fur on her shoulders standing up, and the tip of her tail lashing back and forth. The two Cats circled warily. Damon lashed out with his claws, aiming for Bella's side, and she dodged, hissing angrily. He tried three more times, but Bella was too elusive.

Jasper felt it when the tiger started to get complacent, when he started to think that Bella had indeed gotten slower. Jasper smirked. _Fool_, he thought. Damon's cockiness made him sloppy. The next time he tried to rake Bella's flank, she was able to dart in and slash his shoulder. Damon growled in pain and jumped back as blood started to seep from the wounds, which healed swiftly.

Damon seemed to realize that Bella would win if he tried to come at her in a way that would require speed and agility – in that way, her smaller size gave her the upper hand. So he needed to make this a fight that relied on brute strength alone. He feinted left, then charged her head-on.

I gasped at what happened next. The two Cats reared up on their hind legs and collided, the way rival large cats fought in the wild. Their claws searched for vulnerable flesh on the other's back and sides, and their teeth flashed, trying to get past the obstacle of the opponents head so they would have a clear shot at the neck. Their snarls and roars were deafening. I was rigid, tense, having to, at every second, remind myself not to interfere. Jasper and Emmett had their hands on my shoulders in case I lost the fight with myself. One of Damon's canine teeth nicked Bella's face, just above her left eye, and Emmett had to practically tackle me to keep me from running to kill Damon myself.

But then the tide turned. Bella's claws found purchase on Damon's back, and she dug them in, tearing into his skin and muscle. Damon did the same thing most would have done – he reared his head back, screamed in pain, and tried to get away. But in lifting his head, he had offered Bella a perfect shot at his throat. All Bella had to do was lunge forward and seize his neck in her teeth. Damon, already off balance, fell backwards, which deposited him on his back on the ground with Bella on her feet over him. She had never let go of his throat. Two of the Cats that had been behind my house, a Bengal tiger like Damon and an African serval, changed into human-looking In Between forms. They were a man and a woman, and they looked so much like Damon that I was sure they were his parents. Damon's mother had her hands over her mouth, and his father's hand was extended toward his son. Tears filled their eyes. They couldn't stop Bella from killing him, I realized. Damon had volunteered to fight – they couldn't stop her. Esme and Carlisle were shaken by pity and horror. And I, too, couldn't help but be a little worried. Would Bella kill Damon now? Right there, in front of his parents?

Bella saw the couple, but she didn't loosen her grip on Damon's throat. Neither, however, did she tighten it. Damon was very still, obviously very conscious of the fact that Bella determined whether he lived or died. A low growl came from deep in Bella's chest and rumbled across the clearing like thunder. For a moment, nobody moved. Then suddenly, Bella jerked away from Damon and started walking back to my family and me. She smoothly shifted into her In Between form in midstep. She didn't stop in the yard next to Marisol – she bounded up the stairs and squeezed her way between my family members until she was with me.

Then she wrapped her arms tightly around me. I could feel her shaking slightly, and I realized that she had not been as calm as she'd looked – she had very aware of the fact that all our lives depended on her. I hugged her back. "You did it," I whispered in her ear, pulling back slightly and touching the small, comma shaped scar that was developing just underneath her left eyebrow.

Bella smiled self-consciously, brushing her own fingers along her new scar. "That wasn't supposed to happen," she admitted.

I grinned. "But, on the bright side, you saved all of our lives, and you now have a new and – if I do say so myself – extraordinarily adorable scar."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks." She turned to her mother, keeping her arm securely wrapped around my waist. "I won. That's it. It's over. You can leave now."

One of the other Cats, the mountain lion that Renee had snarled at, changed abruptly into an In Between form. It was a girl, maybe sixteen years old, with brown hair and eyes so dark they were almost black. She looked a lot like Bella. "Bella!" she protested, hurt.

Bella smiled. "Hey, Brittany. How's it going?"

Brittany scowled. "Not that great at the moment. Why can't we stay for a little longer? I haven't seen you in a while."

Bella grimaced. "Maybe you didn't notice, but we almost had a slaughter on our hands," she reminded Brittany. "It probably wouldn't be a good idea to prolong this moment."

Inspiration lit up Brittany's dark eyes. "Well, we and Hanson's pride are having a party later tonight. Why don't you all come?"

Renee snarled. "Brittany, be quiet."

Brittany glared at Renee. "I've missed Bella, Renee. I want to talk to her. And, since she seems to care for this coven, I'd like to get to know them, too. I think they should come." She crossed her arms resolutely over her chest.

The male African lion and the leopard changed into In Between forms, too. The man had blond hair, and was tall, slender, and wiry in build. The leopard was a red-haired woman. By the way the stood next to each other, I thought they were mates. The man spoke in a gruff, low voice with an Irish accent. "Let them come, Renee. Think of it as an olive branch."

"Yes," the woman at his side agreed. Her accent sounded vaguely French"It would be good to, ah, begin again, don't you think?" She winked at, I realized with surprise, _me_. "If Bella is going to stay with them, then I think we will be seeing more of each other eventually. Why not bury the hatchet?"

Damon's father spoke up in a deep voice. He was looking at Bella. "You had every right to kill him," he said softly, obviously meaning Damon. "But you didn't. I owe you, and, while I doubt I can every repay you fully, I can start by extending my support." He straightened his shoulders. "My pride would be honored if you joined us tonight." His voice rang with sincerity, and Jasper grudgingly acknowledged that he bore us no ill will.

His son, on the other hand, was not as accepting. "_What?_ You can't actually intend to -" Damon began, shocked and scornful, but his father silenced him with one look. I understood Damon's reaction completely – that particular look would have made me fall silent, too.

His father's voice was lower, almost a growl, when he answered. "Yes, I _do_ actually intend to support them." Then, in an even lower voice, "You lost your right to protest when she beat you," he reminded his son. "Honor the terms of the duel, and keep your mouth _shut_." He looked like he wanted to smack Damon on the back of the head to make sure his words sank in, but he refrained, and looked back to Renee.

Oh, she was seething. They had her cornered. She couldn't disagree without causing discord within her pride and possibly making Hanson's pride, one of her allies, angry with her. And she knew it. "Very well," she spat, fuming. "I suppose we could use the opportunity to have the _Cullens_," she snarled my surname like it was an expletive, "officially adopt her, so we can have it finalized and recorded." Then she turned on her heel and marched toward the tree line without looking back.

Her pride followed her. "Start following our scents at about eight," Brittany called over her shoulder. "That way, you should get there when everything is just getting started." Then she turned once again into a colossal mountain lion and followed her pride into the forest. Hanson's pride went after them after Damon's father, who I suspected was the leader of the pride, nodded courteously to us.

We all stood, frozen, on the porch for a moment before Alice squealed and threw her arms around Jasper. That broke the spell. Rosalie and Emmett kissed passionately, and Carlisle and Esme held each other tightly. Even Marisol was hugged several times. Bella started to laugh, though her laughter had a slightly hysterical edge to it. She ran her hands through her hair. "We're alive," she said disbelievingly, as though she couldn't quite wrap her head around the fact.

I lifted her in my arms and spun her around, laughing. "Thanks to you."

Ever-practical Jasper reminded us that we weren't out of the woods just yet. "What about the party?" he asked. "Should we go?"

Bella didn't need to answer that – Carlisle knew we did. "Yes," he answered immediately. "To not go, even after that man openly supported us, would be like slapping them in the faces. At this point, we cannot afford to offend them. And since Renee intends to have us officially adopt Bella there, by not coming we would appear to be refusing Bella, which would not sit well with her friends."

"But what if it's a trap?" Rosalie demanded. "What if they're just waiting for us to let our guard down, and they plan on killing us wherever we're supposed to meet them?" She had a point.

But Bella didn't seem worried. "They can't," she replied. "Once we won the appeal, you all were granted amnesty. If anyone kills you – unless, of course, it's in self-defense – they will be guilty of murder, which always gets a death sentence. We'll be with two prides – lots of witnesses that would be bound to carry out that death sentence. Quite safe." She grinned, surprising me. "As much as I don't like most of my pride, we might even have fun. When a couple of prides get together, it's not just a party – there will be races and contests, too, along with games, music, and dancing. And _you_," she said with a smile at me, "will get to meet my friends."

"We almost killed each other," Rosalie protested.

Marisol gestured carelessly. "What's a few death threats between friends?" she asked sarcastically.

We all snorted.

It had been an interesting day, terrifying and tense by turns. We'd faced down death. We'd earned our right to live. Now, apparently, it was time to party.

**A/N: In a couple days I'm going to Australia for two weeks, so I won't be able to write. Thanks for reading! **

**Sincerely, **

**JasperIsAManlyMan **


	17. Nicole

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or its characters. The amazingly talented and creative Stephenie Meyer does. But you already knew that.

Edward's Point of View

We spent a few minutes rejoicing that we were still alive. Then Bella explained to Carlisle what he would need to say during the adoption ceremony. It was very simple and straightforward, and Carlisle was the only one who would have to speak. She warned me in advance that she would more than likely spar with her friends and maybe even a few enemies who wanted to test her, and that I shouldn't worry or overreact when that happened – which was, of course, like asking water not to be wet. But I promised that I wouldn't interfere unless I thought she was in danger. That was as far as I would go, and Bella seemed to understand that. Alice worried briefly about what she should wear, but Bella assured her that a casual jeans and shirt would be best.

The day wore on. The sky darkened, changing the colors of the sky and trees to serene, calm hues, and the animals that stayed hidden during the day ventured out into the forest to eat, filling the evening air with the sounds of their heartbeats, footsteps, and quiet breathing. The ever-present Washington rain had passed by and left its fresh scent in the air. All in all, it was a very tranquil atmosphere. Thus, the sight of Bella once again strapping her weapons to her waist was oddly out of place.

Carlisle noticed, too. "Won't that give them the wrong impression?" he asked, casting a meaningful glance at Bella's swords and dagger, which gleamed dangerously in the dim light.

Marisol snorted, making Bella frown at her. "Don't laugh," she ordered sternly. "How are they supposed to know? I haven't exactly been overly informative."

Marisol looked faintly embarrassed as she looked at Carlisle. "Sorry – I forgot. But if Bella showed up unarmed, the only impression it would give is that she's stupid. We – Cats – don't usually go anywhere unarmed. That would be tempting fate. It's just..... not done. I promise, Bella won't be the only one. _Everyone_ will have some sort of weapon with them."

Carlisle smiled. "Always ready for anything, aren't you?"

Marisol and Bella smiled wolfishly in unison. "Always," Bella agreed. "Or, at least, we try to be, which is why we prefer to keep our weapons on us."

It was very strange to Carlisle, the thought that bringing weapons to what was supposed to be a peaceful gathering was considered normal – _expected_, even. He, personally, would have taken such an act as a sign of malicious intent, but, then again, these were people who led lives of almost constant warfare. Their mindset had to be different from his own. Still, it made him uncomfortable.

Soon after that, we started running along the trail the Cats had left behind, the trail that would lead us to where they were meeting. Darkness descended as we ran, and a few moonbeams slipped through chinks in the clouds, illuminating our way with silvery light. Their trail led us deep into the mountains, deeper than most humans were comfortable hiking – the places where my family and I liked to hunt. The trees were ancient, soaring far above our heads, and so big around that even if Emmett, Jasper, Carlisle, and I had joined hands, we would not have been able to encircle their massive trunks. Far in the distance, I heard a bear lumbering through the forest. A heard of deer a few yards to our right started and fled when we passed them. A pack of wolves began to howl as they began their evening hunt. An owl hooted, and I heard its wings rushing through the air as it swooped down on its prey. The air was clean there, untainted by pollution, and I breathed deeply, enjoying the taste of it.

Faint strains laughter reached our ears. We slowed to a walk just before we reached the source of the sounds, then continued forward until we stood on the edges of a clearing the size of a football field. Quickly, my eyes scanned the meadow, and the people gathered in it. The Cats were loosely divided into three main groups that overlapped each other on the fringes. To the farthest right were the young children, all not yet in their teens, playing and rough-housing in both their animal and human forms. Two women – one of them Damon's fair-haired mother – sat in their midst, Damon's mother holding a golden-haired baby girl who couldn't have been more than a year old, and the other woman playing patty-cake with a toddler while a grinning baby whose teeth were just starting to appear sat in her lap, frequently thrusting his small hands into the middle of the game and giggling. I heard Rosalie's soft gasp behind me, shocked, pained, and wistful, and I didn't need to listen to her thoughts to know that she'd seen the children, and was painfully reminded that a child was forever out of her reach.

The second group, which was between the other two clusters, consisted of the adults, who were talking amongst themselves, exchanging news and stories, and inquiring after old friends. Occasionally, eyes would tear and lines of grief would be drawn across their faces as they learned that someone had fallen. They were the closest group to the children, and I saw several mothers shoot fond, loving glances at the boys and girls who shrieked in mirth as they played.

The last group was the teenagers and young adults. They had gathered at the left edge of the clearing, farther away from the adults that the adults were from the children, subtly separating themselves. They had formed a ring, and were cheering as two boys – one I recognized to be Damon – sparred in the center. I noticed them at the same time as Emmett and Jasper. Emmett's gaze locked immediately on the fighters, noting their movements, which were unlike any he'd ever seen. "What is _that?_" he breathed.

Bella and Marisol followed his gaze and grinned simultaneously. Marisol laughed. "Well, _there's_ a welcome sight. I haven't seen anyone using Capoeira since I left home." She turned to Emmett. "It's a Brazilian style of fighting," she explained. As she spoke, Damon got the upper hand in the fight, and won. Laughingly, he put his opponent in a headlock, and, also laughing, the other boy flipped Damon onto the ground. The display reminded me of puppies play-fighting.

Then everyone noticed us standing there, and all of their smiles vanished. Dead silence fell on everyone except the smallest children as the Cats stared.

Then a grin spread across Brittany's face, and she ran up to Bella and threw her arms around her in an enthusiastic hug while Damon's father and the man and woman who had defended us earlier approached at a more reasonable speed. Bella laughed, ignoring the way her mother scowled at her, and hugged her cousin back. With the two of them standing so close to each other, the resemblance they shared was even more apparent. Brittany's eyes had the same wide shape as Bella's, even if they were a darker shade of brown. Bella's and Brittany's faces had the same basic shape, with high, prominent cheekbones, pointed chins, and full lips. But Brittany's nose was a different shape, and her complexion was not as fair as Bella's. Her hair was thinner and darker than Bella's, too.

After Brittany released Bella, The man and woman who had told Renee to let us come tonight – the African lion and the leopard – claimed her attention. "Good to see you again, girl," the man said gruffly, reaching out to put a hand on Bella's shoulder.

Bella laughed and hugged him tightly. "You, too, Brian. Thanks for helping us out earlier," she added in an undertone.

Brian grinned mischievously, an expression that somehow accented his Irish accent. "Well, _someone_ needed to take Renee down a couple of notches."

The woman by his side laughed. "And, of course, it had to be you," she teased, then gently embraced Bella, shooting a curious glance at me over Bella's shoulder. She smiled, and whispered into Bella's ear. "_Pr__è__sentez-nous __à__ vous amis, ch__é__ri_." My lips twitched – she really _was_ curious. _Introduce us to your friends_, she'd instructed.

"Oh," Bella said sheepishly. "_Je demande pardon._" _I'm sorry_. She pulled back and gestured to Brittany, and the man and woman whose names we didn't know. "This is Brittany, my cousin; Brian, the man who trained me; and Nicole, his wife."

Emmett's eyes widened when Bella introduced Brian. "_You_ taught her how to fight?"

Brian nodded, looking a little confused at Emmett's awed yet wary expression. "I did."

Emmett laughed once, shaking his head. "Remind me not to make you mad."

Understanding lit Brian's green eyes, and he laughed in earnest. "Did Bella put you through the wringer, then?"

"Several times," Emmett admitted. "I'm Emmett, by the way, and this is my wife, Rosalie."

The introductions proceeded. Brian and Damon's father, whose name was Gregory Hanson, shook all of our hands, and Nicole, looking absolutely delighted, gave us all kisses on the cheeks. Rosalie never took her eyes off the children.

Conversation started to flow between us, but was interrupted by a someone clearing their throat softly. We all turned and saw Damon's mother standing shyly behind her husband, holding the baby girl. She was looking at Rosalie. "The children are a bit rowdy tonight," she murmured with a timid smile. "The two of us are having a hard time keeping an eye on all of them." She looked right in Rosalie's eyes, suddenly looking more kind and sympathetic than shy. "Would you mind giving us a hand?"

Rosalie gasped, and gaped at the woman, then quickly recovered her wits. "Yes! Of course I'll help!" _Oh, God_, she thought, her eyes focused on the small child in the woman's arms. She thought of the woman she didn't know, the woman who had given her the opportunity to be near the laughing children, and whispered a mental but fervent _Thank you_.

The two of them walked back toward the children. "I'm Jodi," Damon's mother said quietly. "And this," she continued, lightly bouncing the baby in her arms, "is my daughter, Kylee." As they walked, they drew several glares from almost all of the Cats. But that was nothing compared to what happened when there was suddenly a disturbance in the midst of the children. Two children that had been play-fighting in their Cat forms were getting a little too rough, and one had bitten the other's ear a little too hard, causing the child to swipe his playmate with his claws. It was about to turn into an actual fight.

Jodi made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat. "Here," she said briskly – and placed Kylee in Rosalie's arms. Rosalie gasped. Several mothers actually shrieked out loud, and Damon – whose sister Rosalie was holding – started to run forward. But Jodi spun on her heel, turning into a serval as she moved, and growled once in warning. The message was clear – I know what I'm doing; butt out. Then she strode into the group of children and swatted the two fighting Cats with one large paw, sending them tumbling head over paws in a jumble. The issue was quickly and silently resolved – Jodi stared sternly down at the two fidgeting Cats until they separated.

Rosalie didn't notice. A bomb could have gone off and she wouldn't have noticed. She cradled the little girl gently, feeling her body heat on her hands and arms, holding her breath and praying that she wouldn't be afraid of her. Kylee looked up, slightly confused at first, wondering how she had gotten from her mother's arms to the arms of a stranger, but after a moment, she smiled hugely. Rosalie breathed again, and smiled back down at her. "Hello," she crooned, shifting slightly so she was holding Kylee more securely. The movement shifted a strand of her blond, curly hair over her shoulder, and Kylee's smile widened as she tangled her tiny fingers into it, playing with the bouncy curl. The baby laughed. Rosalie was soaring as Jodi returned.

Kylee's mother laughed. "She likes you," she observed, pleased, and motioned for Rosalie to join her in the center of the slightly chaotic group of children.

Brittany grunted. "Don't know _why_ she's so pleased to get stuck with cub duty," she muttered. Then she shook the thought off and turned to Bella with a smile. "We were about to play a game of Slashes when you showed up," she said. "Want to join us?"

Bella's eyes lit up, but she hesitated, glancing at me. "Go on," I urged. "Have fun." I would be fine. She had been through a lot lately – she deserved to enjoy herself. Bella grinned and followed Brittany back to the group of teenagers, who were all tying pieces of red thread around their necks, wrists, waists, and knees. But when Bella joined them, and started tying a thread around her right wrist, Damon and another boy and girl snarled, fiercely jerked the threads off themselves, and walked stiffly away in obvious protest.

Bella didn't seem to notice, but I just barely kept from snarling myself. I had half a mind to teach them some manners.....

_Don't worry about them._

I jerked, shocked. The voice was familiar – a melodious, female voice with a slight French accent – but what had surprised me was the fact that I had heard it in my _mind_. I had never expected to hear her voice in my mind – like Bella, I had assumed that her thoughts were forever unaccessible, and, though my curiosity had raged on, I had accepted that I would never hear either of their thoughts. But I had been proven wrong.

I stared at Nicole with wide eyes, stunned. She kept her eyes on Damon and his friends as she continued to speak to me mentally. _I'm sure you've heard the Serenity Prayer before – God grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. They have courage aplenty – they just need a little more serenity and wisdom, and those will come with age. Hopefully. _

I blinked rapidly. How was I suddenly able to hear her? Had my subconscious found a way into her mind? But the way she was thinking, like she _knew_ that I could hear her..... the more likely answer was that she had _let_ me in. Nicole glanced wryly at me. _Don't look so shocked, Edward. It doesn't look good on you. Of course I let you in – if I know how to keep you out, it only makes sense for me to know how to let you in. _

I stiffened. Was the link going both ways? Had she heard what _I _was thinking?

Nicole's lips twitched. _Yes. _Then she looked back to the teenagers who were almost ready to begin their game. They had all removed their swords, but held their daggers at the ready. _Don't panic_, she warned me, _although you might regret letting her go so easily once you see how the game is played. _

I followed her gaze. "Everyone ready?" Brittany asked. They all tensed and nodded. "Go!" she shouted. All the players lunged at one another in a flurry of movement. My eyes were, as usual, on Bella, and I saw a short, stocky boy with curly hair dart toward her, his dagger swiping at her throat. Emmett, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, and I gasped in horror – Jasper was too well trained to gasp, but he felt like it – and I tried to jump to my feet. But there wasn't enough time.

But Bella leaned back, dodging the blade, and came up again from the side, slashing at her attacker's wrist. She moved even faster than he had, and Jasper felt her opponent's surprise at her speed. I was sure that Bella was going to cut off his hand. But then, at the last second, she seemed to..... pull the punch, in a way, because the keen edge of her dagger sliced strait through the red thread tied to the boys wrist, but didn't even nick the skin. I made myself focus on the entire group, not just Bella, and realized that no one was actually trying to hurt anyone – they were just aiming for the threads.

"The point of the game," Nicole explained out loud, so everyone could hear her, "is to cut off the threads without breaking the skin. If you loose all of your threads, you're out, and if you accidentally cut someone, you're out. The last one with threads still tied to them wins. The game is supposed to help Cats practice control and evading more than one opponent."

Relaxing slightly – not completely because, no matter what the rules were, there were still sharp blades flashing within a close proximity to Bella's skin – I watched the game. The Cats displayed incredible speed, flexibility, and control. They all dipped, ducked, spun, dodged, bent, lunged, and slashed with frightening grace, almost as if they weren't fighting, but dancing. No one cut another player.

Bella was the most amazing of all. No one could touch her, and, even though several ganged up on her, she only lost one of her wrist threads. Her dagger was a blur as it unerringly sought and found her opponent's threads, until it was only her and one other boy, who had only two threads left against her five. They sized each other up for a second before Bella moved in, feinting right before slashing straight down and cutting the threads off his throat and waist.

She stepped back and smiled politely. The game was over. Brittany smirked. "I guess you haven't slowed down after all."

Bella smiled back. "Sorry to disappoint you."

Brian, who had moved closer to the teenagers to watch the game, stepped forward, drawing his _katana_. "If you don't mind, Brittany, I'll be the judge of that." He grinned at Bella. "Come on – just like old times."

Bella chuckled and drew her own sword. The teenagers backed up, giving the two of them a lot of space, and the adult Cats turned to watch, too. Even some of the children stopped playing. Nicole leaned forward intently. "This is probably the only time you'll ever see either of them matched in a fight," she whispered as Bella and Brian faced off. All was still for a long second.

Then Brian swung at Bella's head, and she parried. After that first exchange of blows, I could barely see what was happening. They were so fast. Bella, as wickedly swift as she already was, became even faster when she was up against someone at her level. And I could see why Brian trained the young Cats – he was like lightning. Their swords were silver blurs around their bodies, which moved as quickly and hypnotically as their blades. For five long minutes, they fought. And then, just as suddenly as the fight had begun, it ended. The tip of Bella's sword wrenched the hilt of Brian's _katana_ out of his hand, and in the same movement, Bella sprang forward until the edge of her blade just barely touched the skin under Brian's jaw.

They were still for a millisecond, before Brian raised his eyebrows. "You've learned a few new tricks since I last fought you," he noted.

Bella lowered and sheathed her katana, and smiled. "Did you expect me to travel the world and learn nothing?" she inquired.

Brian snorted. "Hardly. But now I'm curious....." He cocked and eyebrow. "I'm going to assume that you've learned some new hand-to-hand styles?"

Bella grinned. "Of course."

Brian removed the sheath for his sword. "Show me," he ordered.

Bella snickered, but unfastened her sheath as well. "You sure you want to do this, old man?" she taunted.

Brian scowled. "Very certain. And for your information, six hundred is _not_ that old!"

Bella laughed as they faced off again, and then they met in a clash of bodies, jabbing, kicking, punching, elbowing, chopping, kneeing..... things that made Emmett flinch as he remembered the pounding he'd taken in Bella's lessons. She was much fiercer now that she had an opponent who knew what he was doing. The movements became more complex, and quite often they would leave the ground completely as they executed butterfly kicks, scissor kicks, spinning kicks, and other complex moves that I had no name for.

And they didn't just stick with karate, either. All forms of martial arts were welcome, it seemed, because I caught a few Tae Kwon Do, Jujitsu, and even boxing moves in the frenzy of motion. It was like watching the ultimate MMA match, except in this fight, there were no rules at all.

For ten minutes they fought, neither gaining the advantage over the other. Then, finally, Bella managed to sweep Brian's legs out form underneath him. He hit the ground, not at all injured, and stared up at Bella's triumphant face in surprise. "What was that?" he asked as he got to his feet.

"Kalaripayatta," Bella replied with a shrug.

"Ah." Nicole nodded from where we sat, and elaborated when she saw our confused expressions. "It's a very old Indian martial art." She smiled fondly at Bella. "I guess she spent some time in India when she was traveling. I don't really know – Sarah died right after she came home, so she never got a chance to tell us where she'd been, what she'd learned....." Nicole trailed off with a sigh, and Brittany stepped up to test Bella's skill in her Cat form.

Nicole was not done speaking. _Bella is very beautiful_, Nicole told me silently, her mental voice holding a strange warning that I didn't understand. _Beautiful, and loyal, and fierce, and strong. And she has chosen _you_, out of everyone._ Nicole looked at me, her brown eyes holding mine. _Do _not_ betray her._

A memory rose in her mind – _running in her Cat form through the African plains, loving the heat, forgetting, in her giddiness, to be on her guard, feeling the prick on her shoulder and looking down to see the tranquilizer dart. Falling asleep, and waking up, sick and dizzy, in a cage, hearing the poachers arguing about whether to sell her alive or kill her and sell her parts. Most were in favor of selling her alive – her unusual size would bring quite a price..... The fury that had built in her at their cruelty, the cage they'd put her in. Caged, trapped, confined..... in went against everything she knew. SHE WAS NOT AN ANIMAL! SHE WOULD NOT BE CAGED! The poachers screams as she tore through the flimsy metal bars of her cage with her claws and teeth and came for them. The taste of their salty blood on her tongue, the tearing of flesh beneath her teeth and claws, the vibrations their cracking bones sent up her jaws as she crushed the life from them..... _

_This is what your Volturi will do to her if they find out about our kind, _Nicole told me_. Cage and destroy her. I did not pity the men who caged me. I will not pity _you_ if you cage her. I will find you, and you will suffer the same fate that those poachers did. Don't doubt me in this_.

I felt cold dread twist in my stomach. Not because of Nicole's threat – if I ever betrayed Bella, I would deserve such a fate. I would welcome it. No, what terrified me was the fact that if I ever so much as shook Aro's hand again, he would know everything. I would tell him without opening my mouth, without wanting to.

I had forgotten that Nicole knew what I was thinking. _That would not be a problem_, she reassured me. _Bella would be able to keep your memories of us safe. For Aro to know, you would have to tell him. _

_How? _She couldn't do that – could she?

_The mind isn't all that complicated once you know how to navigate it, _Nicole said musingly_. When Bella received her Marks, she had to go to our underground sanctuary. The guards there are experts at reading and manipulating the mind. They _have_ to be in order to protect the place. Bella learned form them while she was there, and, should the need arise, she would be able to shield part of your mind – your memories about the Cats – from Aro, while leaving the rest open for him to see so he wouldn't be suspicious. _

I breathed again. Her secret was safe. Then something occurred to me. _You're letting me hear your thoughts. Could Bella?_

Nicole nodded slightly. _If she wanted to. _She glanced at me from the corner of her eye, a smile playing at the corners of her lips._ Any more questions?_ But she didn't ask it unkindly.

I thought about it, composing a mental list, and started at the top. _What are your weapons made out of? No metal that I know of can cut through vampire skin. _

Nicole made a face. _This is one of those answers that makes us sound terrible._ She sighed. _We cremate our dead, and send the ashes to the guards in the underground sanctuary. They mix the ashes with molten metal, and the finished product is sharp enough to cut through your skin_.

Oh. That _was_ a little..... barbaric. But it worked, so I couldn't really criticize it that much. I moved on. _What about your clothing? I've never seen a fabric like it, and how does it stay with you when you shift? The Quileutes shred their clothing if they shift with it on_.

Nicole smiled. _Our animal forms grow winter coats, and when we shed them, we weave the fur into fabric. It stays with us because it _is_ us. The same goes for our weapons_.

I hesitated before asking my next question. It was of a slightly more sensitive nature. _Bella told me that Cats don't grow or change after a certain point. How, then is it possible for....._ I trailed off, but a glance at the group of children, where Rosalie still sat holding Kylee, gave me away.

Nicole's mental tone was suddenly sad. _How is it that we are able to reproduce?_ she finished heavily. _It isn't easy. Children are difficult to conceive – couples can try for centuries and never succeed. It's all up to chance, really. That is why we cherish our children so much. They are rare – and no mother ever gives birth more than two times. This is why, if the Volturi set out to eradicate us, they would have the upper hand. They can create more warriors with a single bite. But we cannot_.

She sighed. _That, I think, is why Jodi asked Rosalie to help with the little ones. She saw the look on her face, and knew that she wanted children, but would never be able to have any. Jodi is one of the kindest people you will ever meet..... Edward? _

I wasn't listening. A new horror was twisting in my gut, giving me a new reason why Bella would be better off with someone else. Children were treasured amongst Cats. And I could never give her any. If she stayed with me, her situation would be even worse Rosalie's – wishing that children were within her reach when they actually _were _possible for her, but unable to have any because they were impossible for me.

_Edward,_ Nicole's voice was gentle, calling for my attention. _Edward, that isn't something you need to worry about. I..... I thought she would have told you already. Edward, Bella..... Bella can't have children, either. She's half human, as you know, and that half doesn't really present itself..... but Cats and humans are, in a way, like horses and donkeys. They can create a "mule", but no "mule" will ever have offspring_._ That's one of the reasons why Renee was so indifferent toward Bella – she was useless to her, even from a political standpoint, as she would never have a child. _Nicole's thoughts wandered. _Now that little Sarah's dead, I suppose Brittany will be Renee's heir..... she would be a good leader, _Nicole decided._ She's fair and smart. _

Out loud, not hinting at her inner speculating, she said, "I think we'll be starting the real fun soon."

Carlisle, who had been deep in a conversation with Gregory about how his lifestyle had been born, turned to her. "The real fun?" he repeated

Nicole grinned. "The music and dancing," she explained. As if her words had triggered an unspoken signal, everyone started gravitating to the middle of the clearing. We followed, and Hanson and Renee made their way to the middle. Bella slid up beside me and took my hand in hers.

I smiled gently at her. "Did you have fun?" I asked

A twinkle appeared in her eyes. "Yep. I never get tired of shocking the people who think that I'm supposed to be slower than them because I'm half human." But, despite how mischievously she had intended the words to be, her eyes were sad and weary. I squeezed her hand more tightly in silent comfort. She might have enjoyed surprising them, but she wished that she didn't have to.

Then Gregory, the leader of the Hanson Pride, started speaking. He kept it short – just saying that we had many reasons to celebrate tonight, including being able to avoid a fight earlier today. Renee's lips pressed tightly together when he said that. Then Hanson grinned eagerly, enthusiastically – an expression I had never seen on his face before – and he stepped aside. Bella tugged me backwards as everyone spread out, giving each other room. I noticed that several Cats scattered through the crowd had instruments – mostly woodwinds and brass, but there were a couple violins, and even one guitar.

There was a moment of breathless silence. And then the music began.


	18. Ever After

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Everyone on earth knows who does. For any Martians who might be reading this, the answer is Stephenie Meyer.

Edward's Point of View

The first dance was completely unfamiliar to me. It was fast, with lots of spinning and incredibly intricate footwork. Bella took my hands and attempted to pull me into the dance, but I resisted. "I've never seen this dance before in my life – I don't know the steps," I protested as the rest of my family stood awkwardly in the middle of the mass of swirling dancers.

Bella laughed at that. "It's a Cat dance – of course you've never seen it. And as for not knowing the steps....." she grinned and pulled me closer. "You'll learn," she promised, and showed me what to do.

Brian and Nicole, also dancing, made their way through the crowd over to Carlisle, Esme, Alice, and Jasper, whom they began coaching, and Jodi and Gregory danced over to Rosalie and Emmett, showing them the proper steps.

The main movement of that particular dance was the full-speed spinning. It never stopped – all the footwork and patterns revolved around it. The result was an otherworldly blur of colors and faces. In fact, the only thing I could see clearly was Bella's face, and that was only because she, as my partner, was spinning with me. It created an almost intimate feel – nothing else was clear, realistic, except her. That intimacy was slightly at odds with the childlike spinning, but somehow, it all worked together.

After that, there was no particular order to how the musicians chose the dances. Often, Cats would yell out requests, but apparently, the musicians – who also danced through the people, still playing away – had the final say, and we all just went along with it.

The first few hours were, to Alice's delight, focused predominately on Swing. The laughter rang, loud and infectious, in the night air as the men flipped, swung, and tossed their partners in an impressive display of talent. Bella squealed adorably every time I followed the men's example, and Alice could be heard shrieking in mirth whenever Jasper lifted her off the ground. The Lindy Hop, the Charleston, the Jitterbug..... they all blurred together in a haze.

Then the group dances began. Everyone joined hands in circle dances from all around the world – Greece, Russia, India – faced off in contra dances, and even linked arms in a few line dances. Groups of women and men preformed dances from the Middle East and India.

The Cats seemed to loose all inhibitions while they danced. A cease-fire had been called – everyone was laughing, teasing, and dancing as if there was no tomorrow. In some of the square dances, even Alice, Esme, Rosalie, and Bella – the vampires and the traitor – were passed from arm to arm, and none of the women seemed to mind when they wound up dancing with me, Emmett, Jasper, and Carlisle for brief intervals. After a while, Cats besides Brain, Nicole, Marisol, Jodi, and Gregory, volunteered to teach us the steps to several Cat dances.

As the hours passed and the night grew later, the musicians started to play Latin music, and the Cats responded with Latin dances. The rumba, the samba, the mambo, the merengue, the cha-cha, the cumbia, the paso doble, the Argentine tango, salsa dancing..... every Latin dance imaginable. The atmosphere of the party changed, turned from pure fun to something a little darker, more sultry. Things slowed down a bit, savoring the new emotions that the Latin dances inspired. Cat men took the opportunity to press closely against their wives, and the women enjoyed the chance to drive their husbands mad with the smooth, seductive hip movements that made Latin dancing famous.

Bella was no exception. The challenging invitation in her eyes as she glanced up at me from underneath her lashes, the teasing smile on her lips as her hips swayed to the beat, the way she and I were often pressed together..... I had to remind myself several times that we were in the middle of a crowd that might react badly if I pulled Bella to me and kissed her the way I wanted to. Many couples, Rosalie and Emmett included, didn't bother with restraint, and ardently attacked each other's mouths. No one seemed to mind; they just kept dancing, lost in their own worlds.

We danced for five hours – from about ten at night until three in the morning. Then, by unspoken consent, after the last song ended, everyone stopped and looked at Renee and Gregory. But while my body had stopped, my head was still spinning. I was almost sure that I'd discovered the source behind the legends of the faerie rings. I looked at the Cats' faces – a crowd that was eerily beautiful, joyous and angry by turns, and impossibly fast and graceful dancers. They seemed to fit the descriptions.

But I was distracted from my train of thought when Bella slipped away, standing close to Nicole for a second, her lips at the older Cat's ear as she whispered something that even my sensitive hearing couldn't make out. An expression of shock crossed Nicole's face, and she looked at Bella's pleading expression with wide, uncertain eyes. She mouthed something that looked like _Are you sure?_ Bella nodded firmly, and a grin spread across Nicole's face. She hugged Bella tightly, nodding, and Bella returned to my side. I raised my eyebrows questioningly, but she shook her head with a smile. _Later_, she mouthed.

Renee cleared her throat, her face so genuinely somber and sad that I felt sympathy twist in my chest. Every Cat present immediately mirrored her expression. Her voice was low when she spoke. "Tonight we have danced, and felt the joy that dancing brings us. This is a good thing, for without joy, we would quickly loose the will to live. But," she added, "even as we recognize this, we cannot forget our loved ones, those who have fallen and can no longer feel the thrill of life and happiness with us."

Then Renee tipped her head back and started to keen wordlessly, a low, mournful sound that twisted through the air like a finger of ice and spoke of a loss so great that it could never be captured with spoken words – the grief of thousands of wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, and friends whose families had been lost. The thin sound coming from Renee's throat rose and fell in a haunting melody that sent a shiver down my spine, changing from one note to another slowly and seamlessly. The slow yet steady song reminded me of a glacier – a frozen thing, taking years to carve its way, but still inexorably moving.

When Renee reached a certain point in her wordless, crying song, all the other Cats joined in, Bella included, joining voices until the thin, icy thread of Renee's voice became a towering, jagged pillar that shattered, scattering sharp, icy shards all around.

While listening to the unearthly song giving voice to the loss of family, I couldn't help but remember my own family – the father and mother I had lost in 1918. Emmett, usually so jovial, was thinking of his enormous family – his parents, of course; both sets of grandparents that had lived with them; and all seven of his siblings. Esme could hardly breathe, she was so choked up remembering her son Theodore. And Rosalie, remembering her father and mother, her brothers, her friend Vera, the entire _future_ she had lost. Alice, Jasper. and Carlisle were a little different – their thoughts poignant rather than pained. Carlisle and Jasper, because they'd each had over a hundred years to come to terms with their new lives, and Alice because she couldn't remember what she had lost.

I glanced at Bella and knew that she was thinking of Sarah, and maybe even Darren.

When the terrible yet beautiful song, ended, I couldn't help but be relieved, and I knew that my family felt the same.

It was quiet for a second before Renee sighed. "Yes, we will remember," she murmured. Then she lifted her head and pushed her grief away. "But, for now, we have business to attend to." She gestured to Bella. "For the past month, Bella has been associating with the Cullen," her mouth twisted bitterly around my surname, "family, and, from what I've seen, the Cullens have no objection to Bella's joining their family. Although this is no doubt the first situation of its kind, I would prefer to have the Cullen family formally adopt Bella – just to make things easier in the future."

Nicole made an soft, annoyed sound. _Listen to her! _she exclaimed silently, speaking into my mind again._ She's trying make it sound like she's _sending_ Bella – as though Bella's choice doesn't matter. _Someone's_ trying to save face, _she thought sarcastically_. And "to make things easier" indeed_, she growled. _She just wants nothing more to do with her, and thinks that this is the best way to ensure that. Which, _Nicole admitted, her intuition flashing,_ now that I think about it, it probably is, considering the fact that Bella wants as little to do with Renee as Renee wants to do with Bella_.

I felt my mouth harden at her speculation of Renee's motives, but, in all honesty, I just wanted Renee gone. If adopting Bella into the family was the surest way to guarantee that, then I was going to bite my tongue and keep my opinions to myself.

I felt Nicole's silent approval at my resolve. _Good choice_, she told me. _Sometimes you have to let them get away with certain things. But, _she continued, a devious turn to her thoughts,_ not _too_ many things, I don't think – which is where Bella's plan comes in._ She chuckled mentally, an admiring edge to her thoughts. _Renee is a piece of work, but her daughter isn't as innocent as she appears, either. Bella knows how to play the game right back._ Nicole gave a mental shudder. _Politics! I've always hated them – my family left France during the French Revolution, so can you blame me? – but even I can see what Renee is trying to do – make it seem like she controls Bella and your family. She was the first one to mention an adoption, after all, at your home – setting up her plan, making it seem like everything was her idea. She tells Bella where to go, she tells your family to take her in, and she ties it all up with a pretty bow. Bella said this would happen – and she's decided to remind Renee and everyone else that, in the end, she chooses. It's not enough to make Renee so angry she'll do something about it, but it _is_ a subtle reminder, which is all we need. _

Quickly, she explained Bella's idea, and I found myself smiling slightly. It wasn't big at all, just a small tweak in Renee's plans. The outcome didn't change, for Bella did want to be adopted into my family, but it was the tiniest difference – a difference that would quietly put Renee in her place.

All the Cats moved to one side of the clearing, and my family and I moved to the opposite end. Bella stood between us. Renee started to move toward Bella, intending to coordinate the ceremony herself, but before she had taken two steps – not so far that she would be very embarrassed when she had to move back, but far enough to make a statement – Bella spoke. "Nicole, if you don't mind, I'd like _you_ to preform the ceremony."

Renee halted, her eyes wide with shock, as Nicole blinked, feigning surprise, and agreed. Renee looked hard at Bella, and their eyes met for a second before Renee nodded curtly and stepped back to her pride. She couldn't argue without making a fool of herself. I was pretty certain that she'd gotten the message.

Nicole positioned herself next to Bella, and raised a hand for silence. When it was quiet, she began to speak her part. "Isabella has chosen to join the Cullen Pride," she stated, calling us a pride in order to deviate as little from the original words as possible. She turned toward our family, and asked us, "Cullen Pride, who speaks for you?"

Now it was Carlisle's turn to speak. He walked forward until he stood facing Bella with Nicole standing between them, acting as a mediator. "As the leader of the Cullen Pride, I will speak for them," he replied solemnly, repeating the words Bella had taught him earlier that afternoon. He did not take the position lightly – he would not promise anything that he didn't think any of us would promise if we were speaking.

Nicole nodded, accepting him as our spokesperson, and turned back to Bella. "Isabella, who speaks for you?" she demanded.

Bella's back was straight, her head proudly and defiantly high. "As a solitary Cat, I speak for myself," she answered.

Nicole nodded again, her face serious as she turned once again to Carlisle. "Have you, Cullen Pride, chosen to accept Isabella into your number freely, and without coercion?" she asked

Carlisle nodded. "We have."

Nicole faced Bella again. "Have you, Isabella, chosen to join the number of the Cullen Pride freely, and without coercion?" she repeated.

Bella's stern gaze held Renee's for a split second, reminding her mother that this had been _her_ choice, before she answered affirmatively. "I have."

Again, Nicole spoke to Carlisle. "If Isabella joins your number, she shall be one of your pride," she reminded him – and the rest of my family, as well. "Do I have your word, as leader of the Cullen Pride, that you will treat her fairly and defend her as you would a Cat born into your pride, even unto death?"

"You have my word," Carlisle responded, feeling the gravity of that question and answer in his bones.

Nicole's eyes sought out Bella's. "Isabella, if you join the number of the Cullen Pride, you shall be one of their pride," she said. "Do I have your word that you will honor and defend the Cullen Pride as you would yourself, even unto death?"

Bella's eyes locked first with Carlisle's and then with mine, and I realized anew that this was more than mere words spoken in a ceremony. She was swearing to protect us – even if doing so killed her. "You have my word," she answered firmly. I almost shuddered – I would have to make certain that it never came to that, for I knew that Bella would honor that promise no matter what.

Nicole nodded once more, and stepped aside. "Isabella, if you choose to do so of your own free will and have not spoken falsely in your promises, walk forward, and join the Cullen Pride."

Taking measured steps, Bella stood by Carlisle, and both of them turned and walked toward where my family stood. As soon as they reached us, every Cat let out a thunderous shout – a signal that signified the end of a legal process. It was done.

Alice could no longer contain her glee – she launched herself into Bella's arms and hugged her tightly. "You're _officially_ my sister!" she squealed.

Emmett picked picked Bella up in his massive arms – and ended up lifting Alice, too, as she refused to let Bella go just yet. "You're officially _my_ sister, too!" he cried in a falsetto, mimicking Alice's soprano voice.

"Yeah," Bella managed to say – Emmett was squeezing her so tightly she could barely breathe. "Now put me down before I start to regret that fact." Emmett laughed his booming laugh, but obliged.

I wrapped my arms around Bella's waist. "So, does this mean that I'm your brother now?" I murmured teasingly into her ear. "Because, if it does, we might have a problem....."

Bella laughed. "No, no, it's not like that. That ceremony isn't for familial adoptions – it's just for switching prides. _Trust_ me, if Nicole had started the ceremony that would have technically made me your sister, I would have stopped her."

Alice scowled deeply. "So you're _not_ officially my sister?" she growled.

Bella rubbed her eyes. "It's complicated," she said defensively. "We have three different types of sisters – biological and adoptive, yes, but then there's _pride_ sisters, which are every female in your pride. Obviously, I couldn't have become your _adoptive_ sister, because then Edward would have been my brother, and the Cats would have pitched a fit, but this way I'm your sister _and_ I can be with Edward."

Alice looked satisfied, and Esme claimed Bella's attention, kissing her on the forehead and welcoming her to the family.

Someone cleared their throat behind us. We all turned around, and were shocked – while we'd been celebrating, all but seven of the Cats had disappeared into the forest, and were nowhere to be seen. Nicole, Brian, Brittany, Marisol, Jodi – who was holding a sleeping Kylee – and Gregory were the only ones left, and it was obvious that they had stayed behind to say goodbye.

"Oh, my," Esme sighed. "Do you have to go so soon? You could stay for a few days – we have plenty of room."

Brian shook his head. "We have to get back to patrolling," he said us in his gravelly voice. "After all," he reminded us, small lines appearing around his eyes and mouth, "already, people that we might have saved are probably dead because we had to come here. We have to get back."

Bella sighed and detached herself from our family. She hugged Brian, Nicole, Brittany, and Marisol tightly, gave Jodi an awkward one-armed hug, and shook hands with Gregory. Rosalie made a bee-line for Jodi, whom she embraced tightly, being careful of the baby in her arms. "Thank you," she whispered, and gave Kylee a quick, gentle kiss on her nose.

Nicole hugged me gently. _Take care of her, eh?_ she requested.

Smiling, I nodded. _I will_.

After all of our goodbyes had been said, and Kylee had been placed in a sling over Jodi's back, they turned to depart. "Cheer up," Brittany called over her shoulder. "We'll visit you whenever we're in the area." And they all shifted into their giant Cat forms, and loped silently away into the trees.

We all stared after them, slightly dazed, for a moment before Carlisle sighed. "Let's go home," he suggested.

Bella met my eyes with a smile. "Sounds good," we chorused.

"What time is it, anyway?" Rosalie asked as we all started running.

Alice glanced at her watch. "Three thirty." And then a horrified conclusion sprang into her mind, and I couldn't help but laugh at her expression. "Shut up!" she snapped, slapping my arm. "We almost got into a fight with a group of Cats, and then we partied all night with them! Oh, and by the way," she inserted, glancing admiringly at Bella, "you all know how to freaking _party!_" That said, she turned on me again. "Honestly, Edward, can you blame me for forgetting that we have to go to school tomorrow – or later today, I guess?"

Emmett cursed fiercely, Jasper winced, and Rosalie groaned. I noticed the smug look on Bella's face – _she_ didn't have to go to school – and couldn't help but tease her. "Don't look so complacent," I warned. "Carlisle vowed to treat you like the rest of us, so if we have to go to school, so do you."

But instead of looking appalled at the concept, Bella appeared thoughtful. Emmett noticed. "What – you don't actually _want_ to go to school..... _do_ you?"

Bella shrugged, still pensive. "I don't know..... it might be interesting. I've never been to a regular school before. And it's probably necessary since I'll be staying with you – unless I never leave the house and you all never tell anyone about me, people will wonder why I don't come to school with the rest of you." She shrugged again. "Besides, I might even..... enjoy it. It would be nice to be able to see all of you throughout the day."

Carlisle looked at Bella. "Would you like to start attending school?" he asked.

Bella pondered it for a few more seconds before finally nodding. "I'm sure that you'll need to inform the school first, and I'll probably need transcripts and a driver's license, and we'll need to think up a cover story," she stated, "but, yes, I think I'd like to."

Carlisle smiled. "Then its settled."

I was beaming. The whole idea of school just got much better. It wouldn't be nearly as boring now, I was sure of it. Nothing could be boring if Bella was there. And I was sure that I could convince the administrators to put her in all of my classes.

We reached the house soon after that, and everyone broke apart to do their own activities, mainly reading.

Bella glanced at me. "Want to come with me for a while?" she asked softly.

I was standing and ready to go almost before she finished the question.

She led me North, past the Canadian border, and up a mountain. "I found this place a while back when I was scouting out places for Emmett to practice with me," she explained. We didn't stop until we were out of the cloud bank, and the stars and moon were visible. She showed me a spot on the mountain that formed a ledge, like a bench, that faced the moon, and we sat down.

The stars were magnificent – red, yellow, white, and blue orbs of all sizes shining and forming shapes in the sky. We looked at the heavens for a long time, not speaking. But a glance at Bella's face revealed that there was something more than constellations on her mind. I draped my arm across her shoulders and drew her close. "What's wrong?" I whispered.

Bella sighed. "Nothing's _wrong_, exactly," she murmured. "I was just thinking about Ana." I was confused for a second before I remembered who Ana was – the friend Bella had made in Russia, whom Bella had been visiting when Darren and his family had been killed. "I haven't been fair to her," Bella continued quietly. "After Darren died, I went a little crazy – I shut everyone out and didn't speak to another person until the day Sarah was killed." The way she said their names – sadly but peacefully – made me happy. She had begun to heal, which was all I could ask for. "She probably doesn't know what happened to me – she might even think that I died," Bella sighed. "I owe it to her to visit and explain everything, and tell her what's happened since then." She laughed. "You have to admit, it's quite a story."

I laughed with her. "Yes, it is. Maybe you can go see her soon – Carlisle will need a few day to get your papers together so you can go to school, anyway."

We lapsed once again into companionable silence, still gazing at the stars. The North star in particular drew my attention. The only star that never moved – it stayed in place, ever shining, ever guiding. Fixed. Permanent. A lot, I realized, like my love for Bella – a love that would never, ever change; that would affect every choice I made forever. I had been altered past recognition, inside, where it mattered the most. Bella was my North star.....

And the next words escaped my mouth, no less sincere for all their unexpectedness. "Beautiful Bella," I whispered, cradling her face in my hands, looking into her eyes, which reflected the stars. "Ten thousand times lovelier than the stars. I will love you even after every last one of them fades." I took her hands in mine, holding them tightly. "Will you marry me?"

Her lips fell open slightly with surprise, and her eyes widened. There was silence for one never-ending second. Then a profound love filled the eyes that looked into mine, and the way she responded thrilled me almost as much as the words she spoke.

In my mind, letting me feel every ounce of how much she loved me, Bella whispered, _Yes._

**A/N: The end! I personally really like this ending. I had something different – and vastly inferior – planned, but then this came to me, and it sounded so much better. Thank you so much for reading my story! I hope you liked it! I'll be writing a different story soon. I'm not sure which one – I have a lot of ideas swirling around in my brain – but please read whatever it is when I post it! Thanks again. **

**Sincerely, **

**JasperIsAManlyMan**


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